


Growing Closer

by OneRedBird



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Homophobia, M/M, Slow Burn, Texting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 03:53:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 46,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22249630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneRedBird/pseuds/OneRedBird
Summary: Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian decide to check out the mines. Things go poorly, but at least the boys have an opportunity to get to know each other better and work out their feelings.
Relationships: Sam/Sebastian (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 29
Kudos: 187





	1. Spring 26

A little more than year ago, a man named Red had moved into Pelican Town from the city. Formerly an employee working at the Joja offices, Red took over his grandfather’s farm in the spring. With only a few seeds and tools to start with, he quickly turned the farm into an engine for profits. By the time winter of his first year had come around, he had even hired three farm hands to help him. Having more free time on his hands, he proceeded to repair several long-broken things around town, donate a sizable collection to the local museum, and even make a name for himself at the local adventurer’s guild. He had gone from newcomer to respected part of the community in an incredibly short period of time. Even Blues, Violet, and Solar, his hired help, had made themselves a key part of the community by taking time to fulfill requests people posted on the bulletin board outside Pierre’s shop. Frankly, it was all rather strange.

These newcomers and their exploits around town were the topic of conversation for a trio of young adults at the Stardrop Saloon one Friday night. 

“I’m telling you,” said Sam as he tried and failed to sink the 9-ball at the billiards table. “The farmer’s gotta be getting help from somewhere!”

“Yeah, Sam,” replied Sebastian as he took his own, far more successful shot. “We’ve all met the people he hired to help him. It doesn’t have to be aliens.”

Sam frowned at this and turned toward the purple-haired girl watching them play from the nearby sofa. “Abby, you don’t think it’s just those guys, right? Help me out.”

Abigail hummed to herself, then shook her head. “Sorry Sebby, but I think Sam’s onto something. I don’t think it’s just the farmhands. Those guys spend way too much time running everybody’s errands to really pick up the slack at the farm.”

Sam gave Sebastian a look of triumph that only lasted briefly before the blonde accidentally sunk one of his opponent’s balls. “Guess I’m still losing as bad as when we first started playing this game… but at least Abby agrees with me!”

“Well, I don’t totally agree with you Sam. It’s not like I think it’s UFOs.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at this, leaning on his cue as he looked over at the girl. “What do you think it is then, Abigail? Ghosts? Merfolk?”

“No,” she responded. “I think it’s a void spirit.”

“So a ghost!” Sam said, a wide grin on his face. 

Abigail rolled her eyes at his response. “Void spirits aren’t the same as ghosts, Sam. I think one of them might be hiding out in town somewhere. A month and a half ago, I saw Red talking to a shadowy figure near the playground. Then last week, I heard his voice coming from the old manhole late one night, while I was at the graveyard. It sounded like he was talking to someone. I wanted to check, but the manhole’s locked in place.”

Shaking his head, Sebastian turned his attention back to the game, quickly sinking another ball. “My mom spent winter working at the farm almost non-stop. According to her, all of the coops and stables have automatic feeders and autograbbers.”

“Well what about the other stuff they do on the farm?” Sam asked. “They grow all kinds of crops, and they make like… cheese and mayo. Vince said he saw ponds full of fish once too.”

Abigail nodded. “Yeah! No way they’re automating all of that. I can vouch for the fish story too. My dad just got a big order of squid ink from them.”

“So if it’s not automation it has to be shadow people or aliens? I doubt it’s anything that interesting. Especially not here.” Sebastian let out a sigh then went over to the wooden rack against the wall, putting up his cue. “Sam, I think that’s enough pool. I’m tired of gossiping about Red.”

The blonde nodded his head and put his own cue up as well. “Alright. Should I get us some food?”

Sebastian retreated to the sofa for the time being. He pulled out a cigarette and a black metal lighter with a small crystalline tear encrusted on the front. After lighting up and taking his first puff, he said, “Sure. Plain on half if you’re getting pizza.”

As Sam nodded and went off to speak to Gus, Abigail gave Sebastian a little nudge and a smile. “Come on. I know you don’t really care about what Red’s doing, but there’s not a lot else going on in this town. Besides, with those mines up in the mountain, you can’t tell me you don’t think there couldn’t be any void spirits or ghosts in the valley.”

“There’s bats, bugs, crabs, and slimes, Abby, but I don’t think there’s anything more special than that.”

“If you’re so sure, maybe we should check the place out. If a farmer and his friends can do enough to impress Marlon, the three of us can probably get away with taking a look around, right?”

Sebastian went silent for several seconds at Abigail’s suggestion, frowning between puffs of his cigarette. Finally, he responded, asking, “What would we even use as weapons? The farmer has a sword, Abby.”

“Actually…” A mischievous little grin appeared on Abigail’s face. “…I own a sword too. I’ve been practicing a lot at night. You still have that replica mace, right? It’s heavy enough that you can probably use it like a real one.”

“I guess I could. What about Sam?”

“What about Sam?” asked the blonde as he re-entered the arcade area of the saloon. “Were you guys talking about me?”

“Abigail thinks we should check out the mines some time,” Sebastian said. “She’s got a sword and I’ve got a mace. I was asking if you’ve got anything to fight with.”

“You’ve got to have some kind of weapon at home, right Sam?” Abigail asked. “I heard your dad’s been unloading some of his old stuff on Red.”

Sam rubbed at the back of his head and glanced off to the side. “Uh… yeah, I guess we have some of dad’s stuff from the war. I could probably find something.”

Sebastian pressed what little of his cigarette remained against one of the cheap, black plastic ashtrays Gus kept around the saloon. “So we’ve all got something. When do you actually want us to go, Abby? What about Caroline and Pierre? Or Jodi and Kent?”

“I’m out late all the time. I just won’t tell my parents that I’m going to an abandoned mine this time. What about you? Are Robin and Demetrius going to be a problem?”

“No,” Sebastian said. “I’ve snuck out there before. I’ll just tell them I’m driving to Zuzu City.”

Abigail gave Sebastian a rather skeptical look. “You think they’ll buy that?”

“They will if I take my bike with me. What about you, Sam?”

The blonde scratched just under one of his ears as he thought it over. Finally, he shrugged and said, “I’ll probably just tell my parents I’m going with you to the city. I’ll meet you at your house a little while before we have to leave.”

Sebastian sighed loudly. “So we’re really going to do this?”

“We are!” Abigail said, putting an arm around Sebastian and pulling him toward her. “You know you’re excited.”

With a much more quiet sigh, Sebastian nodded his head. “Yeah. I guess I am. When are we going to do it though?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Abigail said, pulling out her phone to check her schedule. “I’ve got some important due dates coming up for school. Maybe next Saturday or Sunday?”

Sam pulled out his own phone, opening up a Joja app. “Looks like I’m working Monday and Wednesday for a couple weeks. Saturday would be good for me.”

“Alright,” said Sebastian. “I’ve got a project to finish for a client, but I’ll have it done by then. Text me if anything changes.”

“Are you still setting up the website for that Wumbus fan wiki?” Sam asked, joining his friends on the sofa.

With that, the conversation shifted away from their planned outing. Soon, the pizza arrived and the three were back to their usual Friday routine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's chapter one. Hope you all enjoy it. I don't often write fiction, but I am having a lot of fun writing this. There might be delays between updates here and there, since I have a lot going on. Just a heads up.
> 
> Edit 2020-08-25: Removed that weird comma that snuck into the chapter title.


	2. Summer 6, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Sam head to the mines.

The days passed quickly enough. Abigail finished up her paper on mid-century Ferngill folklore, Sam worked his shifts at the JojaMart, and Sebastian finished his work for the anonymous Wumbus fan that employed him. As usual, the three kept in touch via text message. Finally, Saturday rolled around.

In his basement bedroom, Sebastian turned off his computer in the early afternoon, then tucked his replica mace into the bottom of his backpack. He put some clothes over it, then a few snack bars, a pack of cigarettes, and some cans of coffee. As a last minute thought, he grabbed a folding knife from a nearby drawer and tucked it away in a pocket. Feeling like he was ready and knowing that his friends were on their way, Sebastian grabbed his keys and went up the stairs to the hallway. Though he knew he should tell his mother he’d be gone, part of him had hoped to get out undetected, so he stayed quiet as he walked slowly toward the front door.

“Where are you going?” a male voice asked.

Sebastian groaned, rolled his eyes, and turned around to face his step-father, who had just emerged from the laboratory. “I’m going to Zuzu City with Sam. I’ll be back late tonight or early tomorrow.”

Demetrius eyed his step-son, frowning at the explanation. “Going to Zuzu overnight? What are you two up to?”

Sebastian made a dismissive motion and took a step toward the door. “We’re not ‘up to’ anything. I just want to go out on the bike a while and maybe see a movie in the city. I heard that It Howls In The Rain might be doing early screenings at the Joja Movie Palace.”

“Yes, the motorcycle,” Demetrius said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Maybe while you’re in the city, you could consider taking a look at a less dangerous form of transport.”

“What do you care how dangerous it is?” Sebastian replied, rolling his eyes. 

It seemed Robin must have been listening in the hallway, as she walked over and tried to step in at this point. “Honey, that’s enough. Sebby, I hope you and Sam have fun on your trip. Get some pictures for me, okay?”

Demetrius gave Sebastian one last look of disapproval before turning toward Robin. “I’m just concerned that he’s setting a bad example for Maru. You know she asked me just last week if Sebastian would take her out for a ride on that thing! I’m just worried that she’ll keep getting ideas like that in her head. Motorcycles can be deadly!”

“I’m sure it would be fine if Sebby just took her for a short ride around town to sate her curiosity,” Robin said. “It’s healthy to try new things.”

“Maybe so, but I’m not sure Sebastian is really the best person to show her the… ‘responsible’ way to ride one of those deathtraps. He doesn’t even wear a helmet, so what sort of message would that send?”

“I know Sebastian has a helmet in his room, Demetrius, and we can order one for Maru. They don’t spend much time together, so it would be good for both of them to bond a little.”

“I admit it might be good for Sebastian to spend a little time around Maru, but I am still not convinced that…”

Sebastian cut his step-father off with a rather loud outburst. “Look, I’m never going to let Maru ride on my bike anyway, and I’m never gonna ‘bond’ with her, mom, so it doesn’t matter, alright?!”

None of the three people in the room moved or spoke for several seconds. Then Demetrius narrowed his eyes at Sebastian and disappeared back into his lab. Robin was left there with a concerned look on her face, but Sebastian just turned away, shrugged his shoulders, and walked out the door.

Sebastian spent the next fifteen minutes in the garage, toying with his bike. It was clean already and didn’t really need any repairs. Its maintenance was up to date. Honestly it was very well cared for. Even so, Sebastian polished already shining pieces, made sure everything was running smoothly, and checked the oil just to pass the time. He wasn’t even going to be using the bike for more than a moment today, but he wasn’t interested in having it break on him. Besides, being in the garage beat being inside with the others.

Eventually, a familiar head of blonde hair appeared on the path leading up to the house. Sebastian watched as Sam slowly approached, waving when he got close enough.

“Hey,” Sebastian called out.

“Hey Seb!” Sam replied, speeding up a bit upon seeing his best friend.

Sebastian grabbed a nearby tarp he used to cover his bike whenever the garage was otherwise occupied by garbage from his step-family’s experiments and he was forced to leave the thing outside. Stuffing it into his bag for now, he got up on the motorcycle. Looking Sam over, he briefly made note of the old guitar strapped to his friend’s back and the rubber band on his wrist, then said, “Let’s go.”

This immediately let Sam know something was wrong. He didn’t expect a ton of small talk from Sebastian, of course, but only getting three words out of the black-haired boy before going off to do something else usually meant he wasn’t in the best of moods.

“Something happen today?” Sam asked.

“Let’s just go, Sam.”

Not wanting to press the issue any further, Sam hopped on the back of Sebastian’s motorcycle, putting his arms around his best friend’s waist. Soon enough, they were taking off on the mountain path, the dirt road making for a somewhat bumpy ride. The house disappeared behind them as they followed the path near the river. As they reached the rather rickety-looking wooden bridge across, they slowed to a snail’s pace to cross over it. A few minutes later, they were at the entrance to the mines.

The pair walked the bike into the cavernous mine entrance, tucking it behind a rocky outcropping, then covering it with the tarp. It seemed Abigail hadn’t arrived just yet, which was no real surprise. Her house was, after all, significantly further than Sebastian’s own. She also had to make the trek on foot. As they waited for her, Sebastian went over toward the lift, looking at the metal double doors and the green light above them.

“You know,” he said, “this place always seemed so mysterious to me. These old, abandoned mines that everyone said were dangerous. The only time I ever snuck out here, I didn’t get to see much of the mines at all. Knowing Red and his friends came through and fixed the lift kind of takes away from that sense of mystery and danger, doesn’t it?”

Sam stood next to Sebastian, putting an arm around his friend’s shoulder. “Nah. It’s still a mystery to us. We’ve got no idea what we’ll find down there, and I don’t think we’re using the elevator.”

“You’re right,” Sebastian said, smiling a bit at Sam. “It’s still new to us. It’s not like we talk to the farmers much anyway.”

“Yeah!” Sam said, flashing a toothy smile at Sebastian. “By the way,” he added, “you said you snuck down here before. You’ve never told me that story.”

“Oh.” Sebastian went over toward a relatively flat-topped rock and took a seat on it. “There isn’t a lot to tell. I just decided to explore the mines a little at the beginning of last year. I didn’t get very far, though. A rock crab attacked me. I got a little hurt, but I made it back okay. The scar ended up on my leg, so my family never saw it.”

“It hurt you bad enough to leave a scar?” Sam asked, eyes going wide. “Did you have to see Harvey about it?”

“I bled a little bit, but I disinfected it and bandaged it up after I snuck back into the house. Harvey eventually found out about the scar, but I didn’t explain how I got it.”

Sam was silent for a moment. Just when Sebastian was beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake by sharing, the blonde asked, “Can I see it?”

“Sure,” Sebastian said. “Maybe when we get back from this. It’s on my thigh, so it’s hard to show you here.”

“How did a crab get your thigh?”

“It was a really big crab, Sam.”

With a nod, the blonde took a seat on that same rock. “Weird. I’m glad you’re okay though. It would’ve really sucked if something happened to you.”

“You’d get over it,” Sebastian said.

“There’s no way I’d get over it! If I didn’t have Friday nights and band practice with you and Abby, I’d go nuts from having to deal with Morris while I’m at work, Lewis while I’m trying to have fun, and mom when I’m at home. It’d just be work, kickflips, community service, and bed.”

Sebastian still looked a bit unconvinced. “You’d still have Abigail even if I wasn’t around. You’d make new friends.”

“Yeah, I would still have Abby, but it wouldn’t be the same,” Sam said, shaking his head. “A duo’s not the same as a trio. I don’t know who you think I’m gonna make friends with either. Haley? Alex? Emily’s alright, but she’s a little out there. I think if I tried to get too friendly with Maru, Demetrius would flip out.”

This got a short laugh from Sebastian, who nodded his head. “Definitely not with Maru. Demetrius would say your hair gel is toxic and he doesn’t want his precious little girl exposed to it.”

“Yeah! He’d probably do like he did to the farmer, remember? What you told me happened in the lab? Red just got sucked into helping with some dumb experiment and suddenly he’s getting a talk from Demetrius.”

“Oh yeah. That guy overreacts to everything when it has to do with her. It’d be something like…” Sebastian put on a rather poor Demetrius impression as he said, “‘Samson, it’s bad enough you made all those snow-goons with Sebastian! I’m not going to let you make any real ones with Maru!’” 

The two laughed for a bit at the idea, then Sebastian said, “I know there’s got to be other people in town you get along with, Sam. You always had an easier time with it than I did. You like Penny, right?”

Sam shrugged at this, but nodded anyway. “Yeah, we’re sort-of friends. She’s Vince’s teacher, so I talk to her sometimes. We don’t have a lot in common, though. I don’t really know much about Leah or Elliot. Umm… Shane works at JojaMart too, but he’s kind of a prick. I’m definitely not gonna hang out with the town doctor or anybody’s parents. You and Abby are the only really close friends I’ve got. Nobody could replace you guys.”

“Hm. Maybe I was wrong then,” was Sebastian’s only reply. 

A minute or two later, Abigail joined them in the mine entrance. She had a sword in one hand, a lantern in the other, and a heavy-looking pack on her back. It seemed it was finally time for them to delve into the depths of the mines.


	3. Summer 6, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian explore the upper reaches of the mines.

“This isn’t so bad,” Sam said as the trio wandered the first subterranean level of the mines. “It’s not that dark, there’s nothing to fight, and I think it’d be pretty easy to make it back to the ladder if things got really bad really fast.”

“We’re just getting started,” Abigail said, holding her sword up defensively while they walked. “Most of the monsters are further down.”

Sebastian nodded, his hands in the muff pocket of his hoodie. “Abby’s right. I didn’t even see that Rock Crab until I had gone down three more levels.”

“Really?” Sam asked. “Man, I never came out here because I thought you could get eaten if you just hung around the entrance too long.” He paused for a moment, then, as something popped into his head, added, “Wait, aren’t we checking for ghosts? If there’s no monsters up here anyway, we’re probably not gonna see any. Maybe we should’ve taken the elevator?”

Abigail frowned at the suggestion. “It’s not much of an adventure if we just piggyback off of Red and the other farmers.”

“If there really are shadow people further down, though, we probably won’t get to them tonight if we do it all ourselves, Abby,” Sebastian said. “I’m not spending every weekend down here.”

“Fine.” Abigail let out a defeated sigh. “Look, we’ll just see if we can make it to the next elevator on our own, then we’ll figure out what we do from there, alright? If we can’t handle the stuff up here, we can forget about going deeper.”

Sebastian nodded and glanced over at his blonde best friend. “It’ll be tough when Sam only brought a busted old acoustic guitar to fight with”

“Hey! That’s not true!” Sam said as he pulled a small, cherry red bomb from a pocket, holding it up for the others to see. It was about the side of a tennis ball, with a short fuse sticking out of the top. Near the bottom, it was stamped with the emblem of the Ferngill Republic. “I brought a couple of these too. My dad’s been emptying out the shed, so I didn’t think he’d miss them.”

“Why does your dad have bombs in the shed anyway? He can’t use them here that often, right?” Sebastian asked.

“He used to think we’d get attacked by the Gotoro Empire. I think he still does, but mom’s worried Vince will find them.”

“Good thing only one of their sons is irresponsible enough to do that, right?” Sebastian teased, giving Sam a little nudge. “Did you bring something to light them with?”

Sam went silent, his eyes widening as he glanced at the rubber band on his wrist. A moment later, he shouted, “Shit! I forgot to grab the matches before I left! Uh… I mean, I bet the mine’s got some of those rocks that we can hit against Abby’s sword to make a spark! When I was a little kid, dad taught me to…”

“Don’t worry about it, Sam,” Sebastian said, taking his lighter out of his pocket for Sam to see. 

Sam began rubbing at the back of his head, a dumb grin on his face. “Heh. Good thing you came with us, Seb.”

“Guys,” Abigail interrupted. “Look over there.”

The two boys looked in the direction she pointed, seeing one of the shafts that led deeper into the mines. Near it, a green slime was wandering around. It didn’t seem to notice them just yet, so they ducked behind a boulder.

“A monster,” Sam said, his expression changing to one of concern. “What do we do?”

“Fight it, obviously,” Sebastian replied, reaching into his bag to retrieve his replica mace.

Abigail kept holding up her sword but said, “It’s cute. Sucks that these things are aggressive.”

“So what do we do? Just rush it?” Sam asked.

There was a moment of silence as Abigail and Sebastian each seemed to expect the other to answer, then Abigail said, “Yeah. There’s three of us, so we’ll be fine. On three. One… two...THREE!” 

A moment later, the three of them jumped out, running at the monster with their weapons in hand. It began to squish itself down to pounce, only to be knocked a few feet away by a blow from Abigail’s sword, slime splattering on the rocks nearby. It recovered quickly and lunged toward her, but she managed to jump out of the way. The three stood at a distance as it shifted its gaze between them, finally deciding to lunge towards Sebastian next, perhaps because he had a rather small frame. Sam rushed in front of his friend, batting the thing away with his guitar! It hit a boulder as it landed, leaving it dazed just long enough for Sebastian to run over and smash the monster with his mace. As the heavy head of the weapon came down, the monster burst into watery green goop that splattered on the ground, some of it getting on Sebastian’s shoes.

“We… killed it,” Abigail said. She took in a deep breathe, then sunk towards the ground, her back against one of the boulders. “I’ve never taken a life before. It feels… sad. These things are just defending themselves, right?”

Sam gave Abigail a sympathetic smile and shrugged. “It’s sad, yeah, but… you know… it could have hurt us pretty bad if we hadn’t. Penny’s always telling Vince not to play in the deep parts of the woods since the slimes there are so aggressive.”

“Sam’s right,” Sebastian said. “Slimes aren’t smart enough not to attack friendly humans or even to run away when they’re outnumbered. People who breed them have to wear special rings to keep them from being aggressive. Besides…” He pointed toward a glob of splattered slime on one of the nearby rocks. “Slime eggs are made from this stuff. Eventually, it’ll run together, coagulate, and the slime’ll be reborn.”

Abigail smiled at that last part, looking up at Sebastian. “I didn’t know you knew so much about slimes, Sebby.”

Sam put an arm around Sebastian, grinning widely and pulling his best friend in close until they were quite literally cheek to cheek. “Oh yeah! Sebastian’s really into these little guys! The other day he was telling me frost jellies can grow these roots in them that you can eat. He also really likes frogs and he’s into those weird black chickens that the far-” 

“I just think they’re interesting,” Sebastian said, cutting his friend off and pulling away. His face was red and his eyes were pressed shut as he walked over to the shaft and began climbing down the ladder. “Let’s keep going. We didn’t come all the way out here to talk about frogs and slimes.”

“Oh, sure,” Sam said as he followed behind. “Sorry. I didn’t think you’d care if I talked about that stuff.”

Abigail soon joined them on the ladder, though she wondered briefly if it could even hold all of them at once. “Let Sebby have his secrets, Sam. You don’t want me telling him about the embarrassing note you left on your wrist, right?”

“Are you talking about the one that read ‘buy new underwear’?” Sebastian asked with a little laugh.

Abigail laughed as well and nodded. “Yeah! Then at the store, my dad saw it and reminded him when he was checking out! You knew about that?”

“Sam came over later that day and told me all about it,” Sebastian said as he got off the ladder. “He was pretty embarrassed.”

Sam got off the ladder next, shrugging his shoulders once he was on solid ground. “Of course I was embarassed! And I didn’t like how your dad guessed my underwear size right on the first try, Abby. That was really weird!”

“Yeah, dad can be weird when he’s trying to get someone to buy something,” Abigail admitted as she joined them on the second level. 

“Not weird enough to eat rocks, though,” Sebastian said, giving his purple-haired friend a playful grin, his earlier annoyance now forgotten.

The three friends continued their laughter, now having a fairly good time sharing minor embarrassments as they continued through the mines. It made the time pass much more quickly, and they soon lost track of just how long they had been down there. They only came across a few more slimes on the way down, usually near the shafts deeper down. The few bugs they came across flew in rather predictable patterns, ignoring the trio. This meant that they didn’t feel any particular need to kill them. As for the rock crabs they ran into, they found that retreating from the fight was an easy way to avoid having to actual slay the creatures. Unlike the slimes, the crabs only attacked if they felt they were being threatened. With relative ease, they made their way down to the fifth level, where they stood in front of the doors to the lift, trying to decide what to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just thought I should mention that I had a few chapters written before posting chapter 1. It's unlikely I will post in big batches in the future.


	4. Summer 6, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian go a little too deep into the mines and get separated.

After reaching the fifth level with such ease, the trio of young adults decided that they really did need to speed along their exploration of the mines. The three friends boarded the lift together, closing the doors so that monsters wouldn’t bother them, then started discussing how deep down to go. So far, they hadn’t been able to agree on an exact floor.

“Look, let’s just skip down to one-twenty. If there are more monsters the deeper we go, we can just go down to the bottom, see if there’s any ghosts, then come back up,” Sebastian suggested. His back was against the wall of the lift, he was seated on the floor of the thing, and his legs were drawn up close to his chest. Honestly, he was getting a little tired of the conversation.

“I just don’t think we should go any deeper than floor twenty-five right now,” Abigail argued, sitting on the opposite end of the lift, her legs spread out for comfort. “What if there’s a huge difference between the slimes and bugs up here and the stuff that’s down at the bottom?”

Sam had been listening to this for several minutes now. He was actually having fun on their little adventure and was slightly disappointed that Sebastian was so willing to skip to the end, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to take it quite as slowly as Abigail did either. With the other two taking up most of the floor in the cramped lift, he had been left standing in a corner near the control panel. After a little more back and forth between his friends, he finally made a decision.

As the lift started to descend, Sebastian looked over at Sam, a surprised expression on his face. “Wait, we’re moving? What number did you hit? We haven’t made a decision yet.”

“Sixty,” Sam said. “It’s halfway down, so we’ll see how much worse things get, and we can still go down further if it’s not that bad.”

The other two looked at each other, then nodded and stood up in preparation for arriving at their destination. As they went lower and lower, it began to grow cold inside of the lift, causing Abigail to shiver a bit. 

“Yoba, it’s freezing down here!” Abigail exclaimed.

“It’s not so bad,” Sebastian said. “It’s about as cold as it gets in the winter above ground.”

“It… um… it is getting kind of cold, Seb,” Sam said, rubbing at his arms. “Are you sure you don’t want my jacket?”

“I don’t get cold, Sam,” the black-haired boy replied.

“Wh-what about you Abby?” Sam asked, his teeth chattering a bit.

“I’ll be alright, Sam. It looks like you need it even more than I do.”

Suddenly, they heard a ding, and the lift came to a stop. The doors slid open, allowing the trio to get out and take a look at the floor they were on. The ground was frozen, blue and white making up most of the cavern. There were few boulders and absolutely no monsters in sight. A ladder leading back up could be seen near a shaft leading further down. Far off at the other end of the level, they could see an expanse of frigid blue water.

“It looks like there’s nothing here,” Sebastian said. “Maybe the monsters have trouble living in the cold climate. Still, I’m surprised there aren’t at least some frost jellies here.”

Abigail hummed to himself, then shook her head. “We’re probably just lucky. There’s no reason this floor would be totally uninhabited, right? Let’s just keep going and see what happens.”

The three silently climbed down the next shaft, ending up on another frigid level. Unlike on the relatively simple levels far up above, they were now surrounded by a veritable maze of boulders, rocky outcroppings that glimmered with minerals, wooden crates, barrels, cave walls, and icy crystals. There were still no monsters in sight, but a faint chirping sound could be heard coming from far away.

“This place is kind of creepy, isn’t it?” Sam said, glancing around. “I’m kind of impressed that the farmer came down here without the lift.”

“I think it’s beautiful,” Sebastian said, his focus currently on a frozen tear lodged in a cleft in some icy rock. He grabbed the precious stone and began to pull on it, trying to get it free. 

For her part, Abigail had taken to looking down the various crevices and gaps that could provide them with a way forward through the mine. Most seemed to lead nowhere, unfortunate, and a few that did look like they led to tunnels were so tight that she was worried about how difficult a retreat might be. Finally, she settled on a moderately narrow gap that seemed to lead toward some minecart tracks. 

“I think we should go this way,” she said. “If there’s a track, people probably came through here once already.”

“Sure,” Sebastian responded, currently in the process of using his mace to dislodge the frozen tear, hitting it against the icy stone where the jewel was stuck. “Let me just get this.” His efforts caused a clanking sound as metal hit rock, the noise reverberating through the tunnels.

“Do you want me to blow the rock up?” Sam asked. “I know those cherry bombs look small, but they can usually split a rock this side no problem.”

“Sam, that would just blow up the gem too.”

Abigail opened her mouth to say something, then quickly shut it again. She could swear she was hearing something… different between the loud clangs on the stone. “Sebastian, stop for a second.”

Raising an eyebrow at the command, Sebastian stopped nonetheless. “What’s…” He cut the question short when he heard the same thing.

Sam opened his mouth to ask what was going on, only to have Sebastian press a finger against his lips to silence him. Seeing how serious the other two looked, he listened closely as well. That’s when he heard it.

The chirping was growing louder.

Slowly, the three began to step away from the rock, turning their attention back toward the ladder they came from. They started to walk toward it, when another sound caused them to stop. Something else was banging against one of the boulders near the ladder, the sound seeming to come from the other side of the wall that the boulder was up against. 

Abigail motioned for the other two to follow as she led them quietly back toward the gap she had decided they would go through earlier, hoping it would lead them to the next shaft. They had already been down there for hours and, presented with some unknown danger that could turn out to be more serious than slimes and bugs, she suddenly felt the urge to return to the surface as soon as possible.

Suddenly the boulder shattered apart, dust being kicked up, temporarily blinding the trio and causing them to cough! When it all settled, Abigail almost felt a bit of relief despite the violent display of force from the thing that had just destroyed that rock. After all, it was hard to be intimidated by the creature that did it, which was best described as a white-eyed lump of coal with a fuzzy-looking coat of black dust on its body. This brief sense of relief faded when she noticed the dozens upon dozens of similar creatures chirping behind it, all of them in a tunnel that had previously been obscured by the boulder.

“Run!” Abigail shouted out, and the group began to flee through the gap she had spotted earlier, starting to run through the tunnel on the other side. “Follow the tracks!” she yelled, hoping the minecart system actually led somewhere.

Sebastian and Sam were happy to comply, running as fast as their legs would take them, the chirping sound always coming from just behind the group, mixed with the occasional sound of more stone breaking apart. There was no time to stop to look at just how many of these deceptively cute monsters there were. They just kept running, sure that these things did not have particularly good intentions. 

It seemed that the plan of following the tracks paid off. After squeezing through another narrow gap in the stone and hopping over the broken remains of a crashed minecart, they found a way deeper into the mine. This one was rather different from the shafts and ladders they had used up to this point. What they had come across was a set of stairs cut from the stone and earth of the mine. They didn’t have the usual wear and tear that came with age, but the three young adults were not inclined to waste time wondering why that was. With a bit of help from Sam, Abigail pushed a loose boulder to block the gap they had come in through, hoping it would buy them a bit of time. 

Sebastian had, while the others were blocking the path, collapsed to the ground, his legs pulled in close, eyes starting to grow wet with tears he tried to hold in. “We’re fucking dead,” he said. “They’ll just follow us down the stairs.”

Sam got down toward the ground, putting a hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, forcing a smile despite the dire situation. “Come on, Seb. We’re gonna make it out of here, alright? We’ve just gotta keep going!”

“Sam’s right,” Abigail said, “but we need to get going right now. If we can just make it to the next lift, we can get out of here.”

Sebastian still seemed to be shutting down mentally at his own impending death. It was ironic, he thought. He had expected to go out a little more gracefully than this when the moment came. Nearly pissing himself in fear of adorable, chirping little balls was certainly not how he imagined things.

The blonde stared at his friend while the sound of chirping reached them again, mixing with the sound of the creatures throwing themselves against the boulder, trying to break it. He then noticed the coal on the ground all around them. It had surely come from the crashed cart they hopped over. There had to be a couple hundred pounds sprawled across the icy ground. An idea came to him.

Pulling Sebastian off the ground, Sam snatched the lighter out of the other boy’s pocket, then pushed him into Abigail’s arms. He then pulled out all the cherrybombs he had on his person, dumping most on the ground and keeping one in his hand.

“Sam, what are you…” Abigail began to ask, but she was cut off. 

“Start running down the stairs with Seb. I’m pretty quick in these new sneakers. Trust me, I’ll be right behind you guys!”

Abigail gave him a skeptical look but began to descend the stairs with the still-in-shock Sebastian. Sam lit the fuse of the cherry bomb just as deep cracks began to form on the boulder. He tossed the thing downward and started running down the stairs behind Abigail and Sebastian.

Then there was a loud boom, an anguished cacophony of chirps, and the floor beneath them began to shake.

This proved enough to snap Sebastian out of it. As he saw Sam desperately trying to catch up to them, he twisted out of Abigail’s hold and took a few steps toward his best friend. “Sam, you’ve gotta run! I don’t think the stairs ca-” 

It was too late. The cherry bombs on their own were not particularly powerful, but the fine layer of coal dust that clung to the dust sprites, their own flammable bodies, and the large amount of coal spilled on the ground up above only amplified the explosion, rocking the mine and causing the stairs to collapse. Already near the bottom, Abigail was tossed down the remaining stairs, landing on the next level. For Sam and Sebastian, though, the floor gave out beneath them, sending them tumbling further into the depths.


	5. Summer 6, Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Sebastian find themselves in a dire situation deep in the mines.

For a while, there was only darkness.

It was a surprise for Sebastian when he was able to open his eyes again. He was certain he and Sam had both just died, yet here he was, still in the mines.

That or he had been sent to some sort of terrible underworld where he would be punished in a manner thematically appropriate for the way he had died.

As he began to take in his surroundings, he noticed that he was sunken into something soft, slimy, and wet. The icy walls were coated in a layer of green sludge that pulsated and flowed constantly. He could hear the splattering and splashing sounds of slimes moving across liquid somewhere in the caves, but it was far enough away that he decided not to worry about it right now.

With some effort and no small amount of pain, he managed to push himself up into a half-sitting position. He then noticed that he had landed in a rather disgusting, particularly slimy sort of mud that had broken his fall. A few yard away, he could see Sam, still knocked out, laying in the same gunk.

Sebastian had every intent of going over and seeing if his friend… his best friend… the person he secretly hoped would one day move with him to Zuzu City was still alive. Unfortunately, he found that there were two obstacles to that goal. First of all, his body hurt terribly. Even if the mud had broken his fall, he was fairly certain he had at least a couple broken bones somewhere. He couldn’t move his legs without a sharp pain shooting up the appendage, and he couldn’t even push through the pain for fear of screaming. He didn’t want to draw the attention of whatever might be living down here, after all. The second issue, of course, was that the slimy mud had soaked into his hoodie and his pants, clinging to his body and intensifying the effects of the frigid air of the caverns.

Or, in other words, Sebastian was cold. Very, very cold.

What did it matter anyway? Even if he could drag himself over to Sam, they were going to die here. Hardly anyone ever stepped foot in the mines. They had kept their little expedition secret, so no one would even know to look for them there. If, by chance, Red or the farmhands did decide to go monster hunting in the mines, Sebastian had no way of knowing whether or not there was some other way to access the floor they were now trapped on. The stairs they had used were clearly not an option. Maybe the best thing to do would just be to wait for nature to take its course.

His thoughts were interrupted by a groan and an uncharacteristically quiet voice asking, “Seb… did you make it?”

“I think so,” was his reply. “What about you?”

“I think so too,” Sam said.

There was a moment of silence between the two before Sam continued, saying, “I’m sorry, Seb. I took us to floor sixty.”

“I said we should go deeper,” said Sebastian.

“Heh. Abby said we should go to the mines.”

“Yeah,” Sebastian said. “At least she’s not here with us.”

“Do you think she made it out?”

“She was closer to the next floor than we were. If there weren’t many monsters there, she might have made it.”

The two went quiet for several seconds, both staring up at the ceiling.

Sam was the one to break the silence. “Seb?”

“What is it, Sam?”

“We need to get out of here.”

Sebastian didn’t move. “We can’t.”

“We have to try.”

“We’re going to die here, Sam.”

Sebastian then heard a pained groan come from the other man, followed by the sound of movement through the mud. He glanced over, only to see Sam pulling himself through the mud as best he could, not able to fully stand, but able to sort of fumble and splash his way through.

“We’re not gonna die, Seb. Come one.”

Though he was still sure this was pointless, seeing Sam trying so hard to make it out of this awful situation sparked some small amount of resistance within Sebastian. With his own grunt of pain, he pulled himself near to the edge of the pool of mud, Sam giving him a hand to finish getting out.

Soon enough, the two were huddled together, their backs against a cave wall, covered in that unique mix of slime, water, soil, and ice. They shivered against one another, but… it was strangely comforting for Sebastian. 

“Seb?”

“What now, Sam?”

“Did you ever see Parachutes on Stair Mountain?”

“You want to talk about movies right now?”

Sam was silent in response to Sebastian’s question.

“…fine, Sam. No, I never saw it.”

“These parachuter guys get blown away by this storm, right? So they end up on this mountain, where they’re wet and they’re cold and they don’t know how long it’ll be until they’re rescued. So they get into this cave. And in the cave, they light a fire and they put their clothes up to dry next to it, but they’ve still gotta get through the night…”

Now it was Sebastian’s turn to be silent, his mouth a thin line as he started to see where this was going.

“…so they huddle up really close so they can keep each other warm and…”

“So you want us to stip down and cuddle.”

“You don’t have to put it like that, man.”

Sebastian let out a sigh, then nodded his head. “Alright. I don’t think I can get any colder now anyway. I’ll try it.”

Sam pulled off his wet jacket, using the inside of it to wipe off some of the gunk clinging to his hair, then tossed the thing side. Sebastian watched as his friend’s shirt disappeared next, revealing the toned chest of someone who exercised regularly, the look only slightly undermined by the bit of pudge he had around his belly from a rather poor diet. Sam undid his belt next and Sebastian found himself swallowing a lump he didn’t realize was in his throat. His eyes were fixed on the sight, and, try as he might, he just couldn’t seem to tear them away. 

Sebastian watched as Sam tossed the belt away, and tried to tug down his pants, only to grunt in pain from the feeling around his legs. Sebastian swore he heard Sam say something, but… no… he must have been imagining things.

“Sebastian?”

“Hm? Sorry. Say that again.”

“This really hurts. Can you pull these things off for me?”

No, it seemed Sebastian had heard Sam right. This was beginning to feel like badly-written smut. Still… this was his friend… his best friend… the person he secretly hoped would one day move with him to Zuzu City. And this was a serious situation. Sebastian could briefly put aside the… strange feelings he was having to possible save Sam’s life. It’s not like he had never seen Sam without his pants on before, though he couldn’t help but feel like this was somehow different.

Sebastian reached over and grabbed Sam’s pants, tugging on them roughly to try to pull them off. Unfortunately, Sam couldn’t seem to do much to lift his ass a bit so his body weight wouldn’t keep the things pinned to the ground. All Sebastian’s efforts seemed to do was cause Sam more pain, if the grunts and whimpers were anything to go by. After stopping a moment to let out his own groan of frustration, a thought crossed Sebastian’s mind. He thrust his hand into one of his pockets, searching around within. With the slime coating his skin and clinging to the cloth, it was hard to get a good feel for anything. Still, it had to be here…

And indeed it was! Sebastian pulled out the pocket knife he had tucked away while back at home. He unfolded the blade, which made a click as it locked into place. 

“Sorry Sam,” he said. “I know you liked those pants.”

He then grabbed onto the fabric with one hand, pulling on it a bit, and began to slice through it with the knife, cutting Sam free from the stuff as best he could. The act ended up more… emotional than Sebastian had expected it would be. Part of him still thought they were just going to die here, but another part wanted to save Sam. If the fabric was in the way of his friend’s survival, it just had to go. He cut through it without mercy, tossing aside pieces as he went, until Sam was down to just his tennis shoes and his underwear. The latter of these, it seemed, was printed with little green, blue, red, purple, and black slimes lined up in a repeating pattern on a light yellow background. Sebastian would normally have found them at least somewhat amusing and may have privately considered them cute, but under the current circumstances, they were far less entertaining. 

“Do those have to come off too?” Sebastian asked, looking up at Sam’s face for what seemed to be the first time in several minutes. It was then that he noticed how red his friend had become.

“Do they…? Oh! Uh…” Sam scratched at his head as he considered his response. “In the movie they did, but I don’t know if they have to, Seb. They’re not that wet, right? I don’t wanna make this weird for y-”

He was cut off by the sound of threads tearing as the pocket knife sliced through the fabric of his undergarments as well, cutting a column of those cute little fabric slimes clean in half. He pulled the cloth away, exposing a bit more of his friend’s body and averting his gaze just a bit. Seeing Sam nude in the baths, for instance, just didn’t feel the same as seeing him… naked and vulnerable after Sebastian himself had just cut his clothes off of him.

“Sorry Sam… it’s… it’s not weird for me. Let’s just get you through this. So now we just…?”

“What about you, though?”

“Me?” Sebastian looked down at himself. He saw the filthy hoodie, the soaked pants, the mud-caked shoes. “Oh.”

“Do you need me to…”

“No, no. I can do this.” Even as Sebastian said that, however, he knew he was a bit hesitant to actually disrobe. He was a bit shy about being seen naked, after all. While that hadn’t always applied with Sam, asking his best friend to actually disrobe him seemed worse than just having Red walk into the exam room of the clinic while he was changing.

So, Sebastian attempted to undress himself. The hoodie was easy enough, as was his shirt. He couldn’t look at Sam while he was doing it, knowing that the blonde was seeing his pale skin, his thin physique, his lack of any real muscle-definition, and… 

Well, his… chest had reacted to the cold. Though that was a natural response, Sebastian found that he felt a bit self-conscious about it.

Rather than dwelling on that, he moved on to his pants, undoing them and trying to pull them off. Though painful, he found he had an easier time lifting himself just slightly off the ground to get them off. He assumed Sam was, despite having pulled himself through the muk first, actually more injured than he was, a thought which sickened him.

Tossing the pants aside for the time being, he turned his attention to his underwear. Unlike Sam’s novelty boxers, these were rather simple. They were just black-colored briefs, after all. Looking down at them, a terrible thought came to mind. He found himself imagining Sam doing for Sebastian what he had done for the blonde… well… almost. In his imagination, Sam was able to do it with nothing but his hands, which then went to rest on Sebastian’s thighs and… 

Sebastian tried to focus on the freezing cold that would certainly kill them. If there was ever a time not to think too much about Sam, this was it.

His efforts were undermined slightly when he felt a thumb running across his thigh. Specifically, it was running over a thick red line that marred the pale white of his skin.

“Man, that crab got you pretty bad, Seb.”

“Yeah. It’s claws were a lot sharper than I thought they’d be.”

“Yoba… we’re really stupid, huh? We ran away from all those rock crabs and still came down this deep.”

“We were running away because Abby didn’t want to kill them.” Sebastian signed, then looked away. “Are we going to…?”

“Y-yeah… alright. Let’s do it. We’ve just gotta get really close together and like… hold each other.”

Sebastian didn’t respond.

“So I guess I’ll…”

Still Sebastian didn’t respond.

“Seb? Are you alright?” Sam took his hand off of his friend’s thigh, not having realized how long he had let it linger there, and put it instead on the boy’s shoulder.

Though Sam couldn’t see it, as Sebastian had turned away as much as he could, the black-haired young man currently had his eyes shut tightly and his teeth digging into his bottom lip. It seemed as though today was just some sort of nightmare for Seb. It started off poorly enough with Demetrius’ usual crap, then it had a brief spot of hope in the upper levels of the mine, only to go horribly when they went to the icy floors. He had started breaking down when his friends were trying to escape a swarm of monsters, then he and Sam got separated from Abby. They had no idea if she had survived, and they were clinging desperately to life themselves. Now, as they tried to keep warm enough to make it just a little while longer, he was having to deal with some feelings about his best friend that were made even more uncomfortable by the circumstances. So either Sebastian would die here silently tormented by his affections for Sam, or he would ruin his most important friendship before dying. It made him feel like he could just start crying.

Which, of course, he did.

“Sebastian? What’s going on? Did you get hurt worse than you thought or something?” Sam asked, sounding frightened. 

After taking a moment to collect himself enough to respond, Sebastian finally turned toward Sam. He wanted to say it was just fear. It was just that he didn’t want to die cold, wet, and naked in a mine. The day had been awful, he could say, and leave it at that. When he saw Sam’s face, though, he couldn’t.

The way Sam’s eyebrows were tilted in concern… the way his eyes looked just slightly wet… the way his lip had a tiny quiver to it as he stared fearfully at Sebastian… the way he was so focused on Seb that he barely seemed aware of the fact that he himself was about to die cold, wet, and naked in a mine… It was a bit too much for Sebastian to handle. 

Tears running down his cheeks, Sebastian turned toward Sam, put a hand on each side of the blonde’s face, and pulled him into a deep, long kiss. For his part, Sam offered up no resistance.

When they finally parted, Sebastian rolled over onto Sam, groans of pain coming from both of them at the shifting weight and the movement, buried his face in the blonde’s chest, and wept. All Sam could really do was wrap his arms around his friend… his best friend… the guy he secretly hoped would invite him along to live in Zuzu City.

There were a few minutes of quiet sobbing before Sebastian seemed to regain enough composure to talk to Sam at all. When he did, he said, “I’m sorry… I know how fucked up it is to this right now.”

Sam… wasn’t entirely sure how to react. Yes, being disrobed by Sebastian had been an… oddly exciting experience. Yes, he had only managed to hide the full extent of his “excitement” thanks to the terrible cold and the painful injuries. Yes, seeing Sebastian with that delicate body on full display was… well, “confusing” was the best word for it. Even being kissed had been strangely pleasant enough that he hadn’t even thought of pulling away when it was happening. All of that was, though, a whole lot to unpack, and Sam wasn’t even sure how much Sebastian meant it. As much as Sam loved his best friend, the other boy did sometimes act rashly when he was under stress, then regret the things he did later. It was probably best to deal with this later, when Sebastian was ready.

“Don’t worry about it,” ended up being Sam’s only response to Sebastian.

The two then clung tightly, shivering against one another as they clung to life. Sebastian eventually fell asleep. Though Sam was fairly certain that was a bad thing, he was running out of energy and his own eyes were growing increasingly heavy. He drifted in and out of consciousness for some time. He wasn’t sure how long. Each time he woke back up, he caught only a brief glimpse of his surroundings before going under again. The first few times there was nothing to see, but the last time, he could swear he saw a full head of purple hair and a bit of black hair sticking out from under a metal helmet…


	6. Summer 9, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam wakes up after the disaster in the mine.

“…damaged, but they’ll heal. His body temperature dropped very, very low, though, which is why it’s taking him so long to wake up,” a voice said.

Sam had heard it before, he knew that much. It was actually really familiar! He realized that he was just having trouble getting his thoughts together. If he could just see who was talking, he could figure it out. Why was it so hard to open his eyes?

“It’s incredible that he made it out with only that much damage,” the voice continued. “In cold, slime-infested conditions, even seasoned adventurers often succumb to very serious forms of pneumonia.”

With some effort, Sam managed to force his eyes open. At first, the light in the room was blinding, then things looked fuzzy. Bit by bit, the image started to come into focus again. He was laying on a bed, covered up with warm blankets. He had a white paper band on his wrist with small black lettering printed on it. His clothes were gone, he noticed, replaced by a pale gray hospital gown. The walls were a sterile white, while the floor was made up of light blue tiles. The whole room was separated into a few sections with rolling partitions.

Ah. He was at the clinic.

Turning his head slightly toward the source of the voice, he saw Harvey standing with Kent, Sam’s father. His mother was seated on a stool nearby, holding a teary-eyed Vincent. At the moment, it seemed Harvey was explaining Sam’s situation to them.

It was Vincent who first noticed that Sam was looking his way. His eyes grew wide, his tears stopped flowing quickly, and the sad look on his face gave away to an expression of happiness that Sam had never seen on his little brother.

“Sam! You’re okay!” the boy shouted.

This caught the attention of the three adults in the room, all of whom turned to look at Sam. Jodi approached him first, stroking his hair and giving him a nervous smile. “Sam? How are you feeling?”

Sam smiled even though he was in pain. Honestly, it was good to know he was alive, even if being alive did hurt pretty badly right now. “I’m alright, mom. I don’t think I’ll be doing any kickflips for a while, though.”

Kent stood next to Jodi, giving Sam a rather stern look. “I’m glad you’re awake. We’ll talk about this when you get home. Try to recover soon.”

“Yeah. Sure thing, dad. I… AUGH!”

Sam couldn’t help but let out a cry of pain when Vincent started to climb up onto the hospital bed to give him a hug. The only thing that saved him was Kent quickly picking up his youngest son.

“We’ll let you rest for now,” Kent said, still holding onto a struggling Vincent. “I think the doctor wants to speak with you in private.”

Jodi leaned down and gave Sam a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be sure to make you something nice for when you get back home, okay Sam?” 

“Sounds great, mom.” 

As his family disappeared into the hallway, Sam turned his attention toward the doctor. “Is Sebastian here too? What about Abby?”

“Don’t worry,” Harvey replied, taking a step forward with a clipboard. “Sebastian is here, and he’s stable. I expect he’ll wake up before too long. Abigail is here too and in much better condition than the two of you. You three were pretty lucky that Red was down in the mines that day. Another hour and there wouldn’t have been much I could have done for you or for Sebastian.”

Sam gave Harvey a wide grin. “We shared body heat to survive! I had the idea, but Sebastian used his pocket knife to help get our clothes off of us! He really saved us, huh?”

Harvey raised an eyebrow at Sam, then shrugged and let out a short laugh. “You boys have been watching too many movies. It may have helped that you stripped off those wet clothes at least, but cuddling up naked works better in films than in real life.”

“Really?” Sam asked, his grin disappearing. “Huh. Well, at least tried we to do something.” He began to shift in his bed, only to let out a hiss of pain when he tried to move his legs closer to the edge.

Harvey moved over to the bedside, putting a hand lightly on one of Sam’s legs to discourage further movement. “You’ll need to stay still. You got really hurt down there. I had to do emergency surgery to stabilize you, but you still need some time to fully heal.”

“Huh? Well how long’s that gonna take? I don’t wanna just lay around here while Seb and Abby are in bad shape too.”

“I’m going to be putting you on a regimen of Iridiunex, Muscle Remedy, and Jojanol to help you recover more quickly, but it will still take at least a few days before I can even think about letting you leave, Sam. I’m sorry, but what you three got up to in the mines comes with the price of having to spend some time in bed.” Harvey glanced down at steel-cased watch with the brown leather strap that he wore on his wrist. “Try to get a little more sleep. We can talk more about everything later. I need to give Elliot his annual, and he’s been in the waiting room for some time now.”

Sam nodded his head and watched as Harvey left. He waited quietly until he heard the opening and closing of the double doors into the waiting room, then he slowly and carefully began to move his legs back toward the edge of the bed. Even moving them with care caused them to ache, but he pushed through. The clinic only had one room with beds for patients, so he knew Sebastian had to be in there with him. Once his legs were near the edge, he used his arms to start pushing his upper body up, trying to get into a sitting position… 

Then, when he heard the sound of the door to the exam room opening, followed by the sound of footsteps in the hallway, he quickly laid back and pulled his legs into the position they had been in previously. Glancing out from the gap in the partitions that acted as a doorway into his third of the room, he saw Abigail and Maru walk by. Though the purple-haired girl glanced into Sam’s room and smiled upon seeing him, she mentioned nothing about it to Maru, instead just letting the part-time nurse guide her back to her bed.

“Even though you’re doing better, Abigail, it’s important that you take the full course of medicine that Harvey prescribed,” Maru said. “Patients who stop taking their medications when the symptoms stop are less likely to undergo a full recovery.”

“Don’t worry about me, Maru,” Abby responded. “It doesn’t taste great, but I get it. I’m more worried about whether Sebby will listen.”

Maru sighed, and Sam heard her flip through some papers. “Sebastian has always liked doing things his own way. I wish he’d listen a little more when it’s for his own good…”

“Sometimes it’s about how the message is being sent across, Maru. I think Sebby just needs things told to him a certain way.”

“A more gentle approach you mean?”

“Maybe, but don’t worry too much about it. Once he’s awake, I’ll make sure Sebby takes his medicine even if I’ve got to shove it down his throat, alright?”

Maru laughed. “Hopefully it won’t come to that, Abigail! I appreciate that you’re worried about him too, though. Sebastian’s lucky to have you around. I hope he realizes that some day.”

“Realizes it? What do you mean?”

“The two of you have been close for a very long time. The dynamics of a town this size haven’t been very conductive to his making friends, and he doesn’t enjoy spending a lot of time with me or my dad. I know he values your friendship, and I just hope that he one day finds the courage to express how much he appreciates it.”

“Thanks, Maru. I know Sebby’s a little prickly sometimes, but I can tell that he’s happy being friends. Look, if you don’t mind, I think I need a little rest. We can talk more about this later, okay?”

It seemed Maru must have silently agreed, as Sam saw her walk by the gap in the partition again a moment later. He waited to make sure she had disappeared down the hallway. Once he was certain that neither the doctor nor the nurse were around, he sat up in bed.

“Abby?” he called out across the room. “You actually sleeping?”

“Of course not, Sam,” she responded as she made her way over to his section of the room. “I just wanted to get Maru out of here.”

As she stood near the foot of his bed, Sam took a moment to look Abigail over. She didn’t look like she’d been beaten up too badly in the mines, which was lucky. There were some bandages on her arms, and he could tell that she was leaning a bit on her left leg at the moment. She was wearing a black t-shirt with little stars and the logo for the film Mysterium on the front, as well as a pair of black shorts. It wasn’t exactly her usual look.

“My parents brought over a change of clothes,” she explained, seemingly noticing Sam’s gaze. “I’m just lucky mom didn’t try forcing me to wear one of those dumb dresses she likes.” She followed that up with a rather exaggerated gag.

“Heh. It’s good that they brought you something, at least. I’m stuck in this stupid gown.”

“Your parents didn’t know when you’d wake up, Sam. I’m sure they’ll bring you some real clothes now that they know you’re awake.”

“Maybe,” Sam said. He glanced off to his right. Though the rolling screens used in the clinic were in the way, he imagined his other friend had to be on the other side. Harvey only had three beds, after all. “Have you seen Seb?”

“Yeah,” Abigail said with a frown. She crossed her arms in front of her and lowered her gaze a bit. “He’s taking a while to wake up. Harvey says he’ll be alright, but I’m still worried about him. You know… Maru only works Tuesdays and Thursdays normally, but she came in on the night we brought you guys back here and every day since.”

Sam shrugged. “She’s probably just worried about Seb. I’d be worried if Vince ended up here.”

“I’m not sure Sebby’s gonna see it that way.”

“Oh, definitely not. You know how he is about Maru. He’ll probably say she just did it to look good. He’s gonna be even more pissed if he ever finds out she was talking to you about how much he ‘appreciates’ you. Hehe!”

“He’ll probably start dating you just to prove Maru wrong.” She rolled her eyes then looked down at Sam quietly, seeming to consider something. Her mouth stretched into a playful grin. “If he isn’t already. I guess you two just needed a life or death situation to finally confess to one another, huh? You could have spared your rescuers having to see your bare asses though.”

Sam turned about as red as a farm-fresh tomato and tossed his pillow at Abby, who just laughed at his reaction.

“Calm down, Sam,” she said. “No one is gonna think you two are actually a thing because of that. I’m pretty sure half the town would do the same thing if they were freezing to death.”

When the blonde didn’t respond, Abigail raised an eyebrow. She gave him a few more seconds to say something. Usually he was talkative even when he was embarrassed, which itself was a rare occurrence. Sam had never been shy, especially not when joking around.

“Sam?” she finally asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Sam said, though his expression gave away that he was still uncomfortable. “Just… you know… thinking.”

“That’s a first,” Abigail said, taking a seat on the edge of his bed. “Come on. Tell me what’s up?”

“It’s… it’s nothing,” Sam lied. “Just… you know. We almost died, Abby. Cold, naked, badly hurt, in a hole full of mud and slime…”

“I’m sorry, Sam. I… really, really am. We shouldn’t have gone down there. We were definitely not ready.”

“It’s not your fault, Abby,” he said, putting an arm around her to offer some comfort. “We all did some pretty stupid shit down there. I showed up with a guitar and took us down sixty floors.” He smiled at her, then pulled his arm back and started to shift toward the edge of the bed again. “Hey, help me get up so I can see Seb.”

“Absolutely not,” she said as she stood back up, giving him a stern look. “You know I’d usually help you, Sam, but you’ve got no idea what you two looked like when we dragged you back here. You looked like shit, Sam. Frozen shit. I thought you were gonna die while we were still rushing back to the clinic. You’re gonna get up when Harvey says you’re ready.”

Sam looked a bit put off by this at first, but ultimately he let out a sigh and nodded his head. “Fine. I guess we really worried you. Red must have been pretty freaked out too, right?”

“Oh, you two worried me alright.” Her features softened as she smiled at him. “Not sure you worried me as much as Red did though. Lewis thinks we’re freaks, but I’ve never seen someone carry a couple of naked, half-dead guys as calmly as Red did. You know what he told me after we got to the clinic? ‘Have Harvey patch them up, then make them a good breakfast. They’ll be fine.’”

“Seriously? I mean, I wouldn’t mind some breakfast…” He glanced down at his body, putting a hand on his belly. “Not sure how much that’d help me get back on my feet though.”

“I’ve got no idea what goes on in that guy’s head. I can’t complain too much about him, though. He really knows how to handle himself in the mines.”

“Guess we’re lucky that he does.” Sam stretched a bit as he yawned. “Hey… um… You said Maru’s been here every day since we showed up. What day is it?”

“It’s the ninth, Sam.”

“Fuck. You were right. We really must have been half-dead when you got us here, huh? How am I still tired after sleeping that much?”

Abigail began to move toward the exit to Sam’s part of the room. “Don’t worry about it too much. If you’re tired, you should get some sleep. It’s not like you two are going anywhere today anyway, right?”

“Yeah… I guess I’ll talk to you later, Abby.”

“See ya, Sam.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. As of posting this, I almost have the next chapter finished as well. I intended to post them both at once, but since class work has me busy, I thought I'd just go ahead and add this chapter now. The next one should be up soon enough though! Thanks for all your support.


	7. Summer 9, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian wakes up in the clinic at night.

It wasn’t an exaggeration when Sebastian said he didn’t feel cold. Or… at least it wasn’t too much of one. There had been a few times that it had happened, of course. As a child, he had accompanied his mother on a trip to Castle Village to buy special materials. It had been in winter, and he had initially been caught by surprise by just how cold it could get there. Even so, he had adjusted quickly enough and didn’t complain much during the visit. He had felt cold again as a teenager, when a prank gone wrong had left him falling through the a frozen lake during the Festival of Ice. The water had been absolutely freezing and he had ended up too panicked to swim. It was fortunate for him that the villagers noticed and that Sam dove in to…

Well, maybe it wasn’t the best time to dwell on memories of Sam.

At any rate, those instances had been far apart and didn’t really prepare him for freezing at the bottom of the mine. Even now, he still felt terribly, terribly cold.

Despite feeling that awful chill, Sebastian assumed he wasn’t dead. He wasn’t with Yoba, he wasn’t in some torturous afterlife, and he wasn’t a ghost. He certainly hadn’t ceased to exist. Had that been the case, he couldn’t have been considering his current condition. No, it was clear that he had survived his little excursion with his two best friends. 

The thought that he had made it out in alive gave Sebastian little comfort. Why should it? When they were down in the depths, laying in slime and ice, he didn’t really think he’d make it out. What he had done with Sam… Well, he had likely ruined his closest friendship. To make matters worse, he had no way of knowing if Sam had made it out alive as well.

Depressing as that was and as much as he wanted to stay in that half-conscious state, seeing only blackness and hearing only his own thoughts, Sebastian knew it was temporary. Already he could hear the all too familiar sound of Abigail snoring, underlined by the gentle hum of an air conditioning unit. He could also feel the slight weight of something warm covering his body. There was no way he would be able to remain in the relative peace of his own head any longer.

After opening his eyes, he noticed it was still fairly dark. Things were a bit fuzzy, but he could see that he was in a bed in a vaguely-familiar looking room. Since he was sure he wasn’t in his own room, he assumed he was at Harvey’s clinic. As things increasingly came into focus, he realized he was right. After all, the smooth walls, the clean tile floors, and the rolling screens separating the room into parts weren’t something that he’d expect to see elsewhere in the village. Besides, where else would they have taken him? From the lack of light coming in through the window above his bed, it seemed it was also quite late. The clinic should have been closed, and Harvey was probably in his apartment by now.

Like Sam before him, Sebastian slid toward the edge of the bed. Unlike, the blonde, however, he actually did try getting up.

He then bit into his lip until he drew blood and leaned against the nearby wall, eyes shutting tight as tears ran down his face. As it turned out, he had been quite injured. Though modern medicine made the healing process much quicker than it had once been, it was still incredibly painful to do something like get right up on one’s feet after spending several days unconscious with severe injuries. Since it currently felt like someone had driven a lance through his calves, Sebastian just turned to push his back against the wall and slowly slid down toward the floor a pained groan escaping him.

It took a few seconds, but he slowly began to pull himself back into a standing position. The pain was still there, but it wasn’t nearly as bad once that initial shock had passed. He took slow, careful steps as he walked toward the door to the hallway, both because of the pain and because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

“Abby? Is that you?” he heard a rather sleepy-sounding voice say. It seemed his attempt to slip out unnoticed had failed.

“…no, Sam. It’s me.”

“Seb?!” the blonde said, far, far too loud for Sebastian’s comfort. He then heard movement from the other side of the partition.

“Stay in bed, Sam. I… I’ll come to you,” Sebastian said, changing his course to go over to his best friend’s section of the room. It took him a bit of time. Moving certainly wasn’t fun at the moment, but… he did want to see his friend. 

As Sebastian entered Sam’s third of the room, his face turned a bit red at what he saw. The blonde was sprawled out on the clinic bed, his chest totally uncovered, his legs bare, and his modesty only preserved by a little bit of a sheet still being draped over his lower body. His gown was left discarded on the floor next to the bed. His hair was a mess. Without gel, those blonde locks were suddenly at the mercy of gravity, causing his eyes to be half-hidden behind them. There were some fresh surgical scars on his ankles and knees, marks left by the quick-dissolving sutures left on their edges. A few smaller scars and some bruises had been left on his mid-section, while a lager scar followed the curve of the blonde’s left pec. Even with all those marks, he still looked… well… attractive.

Sebastian turned his gaze away as he said, “Seriously? Aren’t you worried that Harvey is going to see you naked?”

“Dude, we showed up naked, it’s really warm in here, and Harvey’s a doctor. He sees this all the time. If I’m gonna be stuck in bed, I’ve gotta be comfortable, right?” Sam replied, moving toward the edge to pick up his gown. “Besides, my parents didn’t bring my any clothes like Abby’s did.”

Sebastian glanced down to see his own gown. It had blue and white stripes and was just a little bit too big for him, looking like it would fit the taller, bulkier blonde better. The black-haired young man frowned at the sight of the thing. “Abby’s lucky. It would’ve been nice to have something to change into. At least you got a better color.”

At that, Sam paused. He had been about to put his own gown back on, but instead he looked over at Sebastian and asked, “Do you wanna swap?”

“You don’t care about wearing this striped crap?” Sebastian asked. He didn’t want to force Sam, but he couldn’t help but perk up just a bit at the offer, a tiny smile starting to creep onto his face. 

Sam tossed the gray gown over toward his friend. “Nah. You take it, man. I like blue anyway.”

After catching the thing, Sebastian disappeared back behind the screen to change. He wasn’t usually that shy in front of Sam. Honestly, he probably had no excuse to be after what happening in the mines, but… somehow, recent events had only left him feeling less secure.

Sebastian removed his current gown and took a moment to look over his own body. He had less new scars than Sam had, but he noted that the two surgical scars on his calves looked quite bad. In the case of the right one, the sutures still hadn’t dissolved all the way. Other than those, he really only had a small scar below the rib cage on his left side. He also noted that he looked a tiny bit thinner than usual.

“How long was I unconscious?” he asked as he slipped on the gray garment.

“Abby said it was the ninth today, so it’s been a few days.”

Going back into Sam’s area, Sebastian threw his old gown over to the blonde, who immediately started to put it on. “Shit. How long have you been awake? What about Abby?”

“I just woke up earlier today, but I think Abby never got knocked out,” Sam responded, shrugging his shoulders. “She’s actually looking pretty good! I guess she must’ve been really tired, though, if we still haven’t woken her up!”

Sebastian smirked. “She probably can’t hear us over her own snoring.”

“Hehehe! Yeah! I’m just lucky I fell asleep first. I don’t think I could’ve done it if I had to listen to that the whole time! Maybe we should wake her up though? She’ll be happy to see you’re okay!”

“Not right now,” Sebastian said, turning away from Sam. “I actually need some fresh air. Where’s my stuff?”

“Oh… uh… I’ve got no idea, man. If Red even brought it back, Harvey probably either tossed it or stored it somewhere. Want me to help you find it?”

“No. Sorry, Sam. You need to heal up more than I do. I’ll only be gone for a couple minutes.”

With that, the black-haired man began to head toward the hallway, making sure to move carefully and avoid making too much sound. After all, Harvey was right upstairs. He opened up the door that led behind the counter and began to look around. From Maru talking about work over dinner, he had a vague notion that there should be a bin somewhere with… Ah! There it was!

Taking a large plastic bin out from some shelving under the counter, he quickly found what was left of his belongings, mixed in with some of Abby and Sam’s. His pocket knife looked fine, his wallet had thankfully survived, his phone had a cracked screen but seemed to be functioning, his lighter had made it out unscathed, and his pack of cigarettes… well, it looked like it had dried, but was a bit discolored. It was clear it had been thoroughly soaked in the slime. Opening it up, he could see that most of the cigarettes were clearly ruined. They were totally discolored and some had crumbled away. In the whole pack, there was only a single half-serviceable cig left. It would have to do.

After taking that sole survivor, pocketing his lighter, and tossing the rest of the pack in the garbage, Sebastian went back through the hallway and out into the lobby before going out the front door. The night was warm and a bit humid. He could hear insects buzzing near the street lamps, but it was otherwise nice and quiet. 

Pulling his lighter back out, Sebastian put the cigarette between his lips and lit it. After taking his first drag, however, he found himself letting out a series of terrible coughs, the cig falling to the ground. He banged on his chest, which proved to be a mistake, as he suddenly found out that his ribs, like his legs, were still a bit sensitive. This left him bent over in pain, trying desperatly not to cry out and wake up the town. The scar really should have been a warning. Once he got himself back under control, he brought his foot down on the fallen cigarette and gagged a bit. 

“Shit,” he said to no one in particular. “It tastes like fucking sludge.”

With a sigh, the boy sunk to the ground once more, his knees bent, his hands resting on top of them. In the silence of the night, without a cigarette to smoke and without someone to talk to in order to distract him, Sebastian began to notice something. The gown, it turned out, smelled faintly like Sam. 

Sebastian let out a groan at the realization, but still found himself inhaling that familiar, oddly comforting scent. It wasn’t like he missed Sam. He could just go back inside and see the guy if that was the case. Rather, he was left feeling a little… strange after what had happened in the mines. He had kissed his best friend. What he expected to happen was that he would ruin that friendship, then likely die. What ended up happening, however, was that he survived, and now he had to deal with the consequences of his actions. That wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the fact that Sam, in that brief moment they talked, seemed normal. It wasn’t that Sebastian expected it to immediately come up. Rather, he thought there would be more awkwardness between the two of them. He also realized that he should be pleased that things didn’t seem awkward. Now he was left in a position of feeling bad about feeling unhappy about the lack of awkwardness between himself and the best friend he had kissed. It wasn’t a very pleasant position to be in.

On some level, he knew he should do the right thing. It didn’t have to be Sam that brought it up, after all. There was no reason Sebastian couldn’t be mature enough to talk out his feelings with Sam and accept whatever consequences there were. On the other hand, if Sam really was willing to just ignore what had happened, bringing it up could further deteriorate a friendship Sebastian was fairly sure was already on thin ice. As much as he enjoyed being away from people, not having Sam in his life was a rather upsetting thought to the basement-dwelling young man. Maybe it really was best just to move on and hope they could forget about this. Even as he thought that, though, he couldn’t help but feel the slightest tinge of hope that maybe Sam would bring it up in a… positive way. Naturally, he dismissed that feeling as hopeless romanticism.

After another five, maybe ten minutes, the door to the clinic swung open. Without looking, Sebastian was already sure about who it would be.

“Man, you weren’t kidding, Seb,” Sam said, one hand against the wall as he leaned a bit to support his weight against it. With that hand still supporting him, he made his way over to Sebastian and took a seat next to the other young man. “Walking around really sucks right now. If Harvey wasn’t such a good doctor, I’d be worried my legs were gonna snap in half.”

“I think that Harvey might be an average doctor and that we just live in a below average town, Sam,” Sebastian replied. He pulled his legs in a little closer to hug them and sighed, then added, “What are you doing out here?”

“Come on. I’m not gonna leave you out here by yourself after all the shit we went through, Seb,” Sam replied, giving his friend a little nudge. 

Sebastian frowned and glanced off to the side. “You should be resting inside.”

“So should you,” Sam replied, giving Sebastian a wide grin. He looked rather ridiculous in Sebastian’s hospital gown, with his hair completely out of order, sitting outside the clinic, that goofy smile on his face… and yet the smile proved infectious. When Sebastian looked back over at Sam and caught sight of him, he couldn’t help but have one corner of his mouth turn up.

“Probably,” Sebastian conceded, “but I’m more worried about you opening up your wounds.”

“Come on, Seb, I’m not some anime hero getting into another fight after I just got my ass kicked! I’m just sitting out here with you for a little bit. Besides, you’re not the only one who needs some fresh air.”

Perhaps because it was too obvious or perhaps because Sam’s current lack of hair gel, Sebastian allowed the opportunity to comment on Sam’s normally ridiculous hair pass him by. “Fine. We’ll both go back inside soon though,” he said. “By the way, you mentioned Pierre and Caroline visited Abby. Has my mom come to see me? Have you seen Jodi or Kent?”

“Oh, uh… I got no idea if Robin swung by or not, Seb,” Sam replied, scratching at the back of his head. “She probably did, but I was out almost as long as you. I was pretty lucky, though! Mom, dad, and Vince were all here when I woke up! Dad seemed kinda pissed, but it was still nice to see all of them.”

“Honestly, Sam? I’d be pissed too. We fucked up pretty bad.” Sebastian signed and started to stand up, groaning a bit as his legs suddenly reminded him of just how bad their mistake had been.

To Sebastian’s surprise, Sam was up quicker than he was! It had to have hurt, based on how the blonde’s legs wobbled a bit and how he hissed as he did so. Still, Sam soon had an arm around Sebastian, helping to stabilize him. “You okay, Seb?”

For what he hoped would be the last time that night, Sebastian’s face turned a little red. He cursed himself internally for the reaction. There was nothing inherently… strange, after all, about his best friend helping to keep him from falling. Even so, he quickly pulled away from Sam. “Yeah, I’m alright. Let’s just go inside.”

Sam nodded and began to walk behind Sebastian. Still, he frowned a little to himself. He could tell Sebastian was unhappy about more than just what had happened in the mines. He had a small idea of what it was, but he knew he was rolling the dice by bringing it up. He stayed quiet as they walked back inside and followed his friend back to the area behind the counter, where he watched Sebastian start searching the shelves and cabinets.

“What are you…”

“I’m trying to find something to eat, Sam,” Sebastian replied, finally finding a few things. He pulled them up on the counter to get a better look. There were three unopened canned coffees, a jar of pickled radishes, a still-sealed bottle of water, and a small basket full of those packaged field snacks that the farmers were always shipping. As far as Sebastian knew, no one in town actually liked those snacks, but he suspected they were here because they were a rather quick, easy source of energy, even if they didn’t taste great. The coffee went back immediately. While he wouldn’t mind a bit of energy, he was well aware that Sam would want some too, then would be up all night. The boy needed rest. As for the pickles, he quickly put those back as well. He couldn’t stand the damned things and knew that Sam couldn’t either. Besides, they were already open! Who just snacked on pickles while at work? And ones made of radish, at that?

After a bit more rummaging around Harvey’s belongings, Sebastian came back with a couple of disposable plastic cups. Setting them on the counter, he opened up the bottle and split its contents between the two of them. He then handed Sam two of the field snacks, keeping two for himself.

“I know these things taste like cardboard, but they beat Harvey’s gross pickles,” Sebastian said. “I take back what I said about him being average, by the way. What kind of doctor doesn’t feed patients who’ve been unconscious for days?”

“Maybe we should just knock on his door? He lives upstairs right?” Sam offered as they walked back toward the single, partitioned bedroom.

“Forget it. Let’s just eat and go to bed.”

As they reached Sebastian’s bed, the nearest to the door, the black-haired young man took a seat on the edge and quickly guzzled down his cup of water. He followed it up by tearing open one of the packaged snacks and, with a disgusted expression, starting to eat it. For his part, Sam lingered there, watching his friend. He really should say something before they went to bed. Sebastian didn’t deserve to fall asleep feeling bad.

“Oh, Seb,” Sam said. He knew this was a risk, but it was time to take it. “I… uh… wanted to mention something. About earlier.”

Sebastian paused just as he was about to take another bite. His eyes briefly went wide as he turned toward Sam. His mouth hung open ever so slightly, but he said nothing. Honestly, Sam could only interpret what he was seeing as a pleading look. He now felt sure that he was right to decide to talk about this with Sebastian.

“Earlier,” he said, “you asked if Robin came by, right?”

For some reason, the way that Sebastian seemed to relax didn’t give Sam much comfort. He assumed he was imagining it, though, and pressed on.

“Like I said, I don’t really know if she did, but I bet you can ask Abby when she wakes up! Uh… but you know who’s been here since the day we showed up? Maru!” Sam said, giving Sebastian another of his big, dumb grins. “I guess she rushed over here, and she’s been working every day since! She must’ve really been worried about you! I mean, I was even when I was just awake fo-” 

He found himself cut off by Sebastian rolling his eyes and saying, “Maru’s a nurse, Sam. Three patients showed up on Harvey’s door. Two were half-dead. He probably called Maru in. She gets paid extra hours and gets to look good.” The black-haired boy crumpled up the wrapper to the bar and tossed it to the floor before climbing into bed. “Look, we both need some sleep. We can talk more about Maru tomorrow. Maybe we can get some real food then too.”

Sam didn’t really know what to say. He nodded and quietly went to bed, where he lay for a while munching on the unpleasant snack bar and thinking. He knew it was risky talking to Sebastian about Maru. Maybe this really wasn’t the right time to do it. Honestly, it wasn’t that much of a surprise that Sebastian took Maru’s concern the wrong way. Since they were kids, he had suspected that his half-sister’s main motivation was getting attention and praise from those around her, even if it meant manipulating them. He had told Sam and Abigail as much. Still… Sam had hoped that it would at least make his friend feel better. After all, Sebastian was the sort to get rather… lost in his own head. When Sam said that he didn’t know if Robin had shown up, Seb might have begun tormenting himself with the thought that his mother hadn’t visited at all.

Then again, maybe he hadn’t. Maybe something else was bothering Sebastian. The other big thing it could be, Sam imagined, was the kiss they had shared in the mines. Admittedly, it was something that weighed on Sam’s own mind as well, but he had suspected from the start that Sebastian had done something he would soon regret, as had happened in the past. Maybe the regret was already kicking in, meaning Sam had two options: talk to Sebastian about it or continue acting like everything was normal. 

The first didn’t seem like the right choice by any means. Usually, he was able to talk to his best friend about any problems the dark-haired boy was having, but… usually, he wasn’t part of the problem. The other option, however, risked allowing Sebastian to just stew in his own thoughts. With both options presenting issues, Sam realized he would have to talk to someone else about what happened. The options were slim, though. Their families were definitely out. He wasn’t sure how good Penny was at keeping a secret. As for Abigail, she was definitely the most potentially helpful option, but if she then went and tried to talk to Sebastian about his feelings, Seb might just get more upset at Sam for revealing what had happened in the mines. Not to mention the drama that it could cause if she and Sebastian were interested in each other, as Sam had long thought they might be. The last option was Harvey. As far as Sam knew, doctors couldn’t talk about their patients, even in small towns like this. Well… assuming that the laws mentioned on Jodi’s preferred television dramas were more real than the survival tactics Sam had learned from movies. Either way, Harvey seemed like the kind of person who wouldn’t gossip too much and who could help Sam with his current issue. Maybe he would eventually have to talk to Sebastian or Abigail, but it wouldn’t hurt to get the doctor’s opinion first.

Having made his decision, Sam started drifting off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, as promised. I hope you all enjoy it. I've really appreciated the kind comments. 
> 
> I have some more class work coming up, but I'll be working on the next chapter when I have time to do so!


	8. Summer 10, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Sebastian have visitors. Sam talks to Harvey.

As the morning arrived, the warm sunlight of summer came in through the windows of the clinic. Of the trio, Sam was the first to awaken. His eyes slowly opened as he stretched out and yawned. His vision came into focus, showing him… that Harvey was already in the room. The doctor had a clipboard in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He was wearing his usual outfit, though with his red necktie swapped out for one that had multicolored Junimos printed on a light blue background. His stethoscope was hanging from his neck as he looked over some papers and sipped his coffee. It seemed he hadn’t yet noticed Sam.

“Morning, Harvey,” the blonde said, giving Harvey a wide grin.

Harvey jumped a bit in surprise, nearly spilling coffee on himself, but still smiled down at his blonde patient once he recovered from the initial shock. “Good morning, Sam. It’s good to see that you’re awake. How are you feeling today?”

“A little achy, but not as much as yesterday.” Sam brought a hand to his stomach, the organ grumbling as if on cue. “Pretty hungry, though. Me and Seb couldn’t find a lot to eat in here last night.”

“Yes, I had noticed the field snack wrappers on the floor this morning.”

“Heh. Yeah. Hope you don’t mind? We were just starving. I’ll pay you back if it’s a big deal.”

Harvey laughed, then shook his head. “It’s fine. I don’t eat them myself. If you boys were hungry, though, you should have knocked on my door or at least asked Abigail to. Proper nutrition is very important while you’re healing.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I really should have checked on you, though. You had fallen asleep so soon after waking the first time around, I imagined you would have slept through the night. I’m sorry about that.”

Sam let out a laugh of his own and scratched at the back of his head, tilting his head a little to the side as he did so. “Don’t worry about it, Harvey. We should’ve said something. You probably needed to know that Seb was awake anyway, right?”

“It would have been best if I had seen him,” Harvey admitted, “but I checked on him before coming to see you. He’ll be fine. You two are lucky that you’re so young! Healing gets harder when you get older.”

“We’re not that young anymore, man,” Sam said, putting his hands behind his head and laying back. “I’m already having another birthday later this month!”

“The years do go by quickly, Sam, but the three of you still have plenty of time before you see any serious effects of aging. You should try to enjoy these years,” Harvey said, putting his clipboard and coffee down on the nearby table and putting the ends of the stethoscope in his ears. “Now let me listen to you. Afterwards, I can see about making you three some breakfast.”

“Sure thing,” Sam said. He sat back up and took deep, even breaths as Harvey listened. As he did so, though, the events of the previous night came to mind. Sebastian had seemed so… off. The more he thought back to it, the less he believed it was just because of Robin. After all, Sebastian hadn’t really complained about his mother that night. His lashing out about Maru had only come when Sam mentioned her. Even when in his sulky moods, he’d at least have a few harsh words about the current cause of his displeasure. Unfortunately, that meant that he really could be upset about the kiss. If that was the case…

“Alright, Sam,” Harvey said, bringing the blonde out of his own thoughts. “It seems like you’re recovering quickly. It’ll take me a little while to get your food ready, so just stay here. Even if you’re doing better, walking around without help is very dangerous right now. If you want to take a walk with me after you eat, though, that would be fine.”

“Oh, sure. Uh… hey, Harvey, when you get a chance, can we talk about something, like… privately?”

Harvey picked his coffee back up and took a sip, his expression looking quite serious as he turned back toward Sam. “Of course. I’m always available for confidential consultations. Is something wrong?”

“Nah, it’s not that something’s wrong. I just… I wanted some advise,” Sam replied. He lowered his voice considerably as he added, “It’s about Seb.”

The serious look on Harvey’s face faded a bit, a small smile replacing it. “I see. Well, after breakfast, I’ll help you walk to the exam room. We can discuss it in private there.”

Sam agreed and watched Harvey walk off into the hallway. For a little while, he lay in bed staring at the ceiling and thinking about what the trio might do with what remained of their summer… assuming they got out of the clinic before it was over. Well, and that their parents didn’t lock them in their rooms permanently. After a little while, he found himself drifting off to sleep again… 

Several minutes after Sam had fallen asleep, Sebastian finally woke up. He was never an early riser, but the smell of something cooking, Abby’s snoring, and the sunlight all worked together to force him awake. Even after he had awoken, he kept his eyes closed for a few more minutes, using a pillow to try to block out the light and noise. After a few more minutes, he gave up on that attempt, tossed the pillow aside, and sat up.

After rubbing his eyes and stretching a bit, Sebastian hopped out of bed. The hiss he let out was rather quiet this time. After only a few more hours of rest, his legs didn’t hurt quite as badly… or perhaps he was just more numb to the sensation after having moved around more than he should have the night before. 

In any case, just as he began to walk away from his bed, the door to the room swung open. Harvey took a few steps in, then gasped, almost dropping the breakfast tray he was holding. In a rather impressive feat, he managed to get himself and the tray steady again without a single drop of milk or juice spilled!

The doctor cleared his throat loudly, frowned at the black-haired boy, then said, “Sebastian, I’m glad to see that you’re awake, but you need more bed rest to heal properly. If you want to get up for something, you really need to wait for help from Maru or myself.”

Sebastian looked a bit annoyed, but he ended up complying, getting into a half-laying position on the bed, his back up against the headboard. “Yeah… alright, Harvey. How long until we can heal in our own beds anyway?”

“You and Sam are both healing at a fast rate. If I believed you’d take it easy for the next few days, I’d be willing to let you both go home within the next couple days. As for Abigail, she’s just about ready to go home. I’ll need to speak with her about it when she wakes up, of course.”

Sebastian was silent for a few seconds, then shrugged his shoulders. “I work from home. I only hang out with Sam and Abby, and I’m not going to try convincing them to do anything dangerous. It’s not like I don’t get that they were hurt.”

Harvey gave Sebastian a rather skeptical look as he went to the bedside, placing the tray on the young man’s lap. “We’ll see how the two of you do today. Jodi is home often enough to keep an eye on Sam, and you do live with Maru, so I’m willing to consider it. For now, why don’t you have some breakfast? After being out for several days, your body really needs it.”

Looking down at the tray, Sebastian was actually rather impressed with the spread. There was a tall glass of milk, a smaller glass of apple juice, some freshly made hashbrowns, a double stack of pancakes, a few orange slices, several pieces of wheat toast, and… 

“You can give this to Sam,” Sebastian said, holding up the plate with two fried eggs. “I don’t really eat eggs.”

“I’m sorry, Sebastian,” Harvey said, declining to take the offered plate, “but if you want to get out of here soon, you’re going to need the protein. I’ll check on you again a little later. I need to get Sam and Abby’s breakfasts.”

As Harvey walked out of the room, Sebastian began to eat the pancakes. Honestly, they weren’t bad. Harvey didn’t use much syrup, but it was clearly the real deal. Actual maple syrup, probably from the nearby farm. As much as he appreciated Jodi and Sam, both of them tended to use the cheaper Joja stuff. Harvey’s were also much fluffier than the ones Sam made. After all, it seemed like Harvey had mixed the batter himself instead of just using the rather low-quality mixes that Sam used. If the doctor cooked eggs as well as he cooked these, maybe Sebastian would be able to stomach them just this once. He was almost starting to feel bad about what he had said about the doctor the night before.

As he ate, Sebastian could hear voices coming from the hallway. He stopped his chewing just for a bit so he could listen in.

“…you should try to relax today,” he heard Harvey say. “I appreciate you coming by though.”

It was Maru’s voice that Sebastian heard next. “Thank you, Harvey, but I’ll be okay. I just wanted to see how Sebastian and the others are doing. I won’t stay long.” There was a pause, then he’d hear Maru add, “Oh! Is that the tie I bought you for the Feast of the Winter Star?”

On second thought, maybe he didn’t feel so bad. Harvey was a little bit of a creep if he was going out of his way to wear that tie on Maru’s birthday. Fortunately, Sebastian was spared having to hear the doctor’s reply, as the two were interrupted by a third voice. While it wasn’t someone Sebastian hung out with often, in such a small town, he still recognized who it was rather quickly.

“Excuse me Doctor Harvey, but is Sam doing okay?” asked Penny.

“He’s recovering quickly. They all are,” Harvey said. “Actually, Maru, it seems Sebastian first woke up last night. He’s awake and eating now. I’m just about to bring Sam and Abigail their breakfasts as well. You two can sit with them while they eat if you’d like.”

“Thank you, Doctor Harvey,” Penny said. “Let me help you bring the food downstairs. Maru, since your brother already has his food, why don’t you go ahead and visit him?”

Sebastian found himself rolling his eyes at Penny. “Brother.” As if Maru even saw him that way. It had been clear to him since they were kids that they’d never be close. She had always been one to do just about anything to get the attention of the people around her, only to then act as though she was just innocently tending to hobbies or trying to make friends. He wasn’t particularly interested in having someone like that in his life. At any rate, he kept his gaze on his food as he heard her walk in. 

“Hey! I’m glad you’re awake!” she said.

“Thanks,” he responded, his eyes still on his food. 

“We were all really worried! You showed up here in terrible condition! Harvey had to do a lot to get your body temperatures up and keep you stable. You were suffering from internal bleeding, your musc-” 

“I don’t need all the gory details, Maru!” Sebastian snapped, now looking up at her. When he saw her wide eyes and surprised expression, he looked back down at his meal, now just poking at his eggs with his fork. “I get it. We really screwed up. I got it when I saw Sam laying in all that freezing slime.”

Maru was quiet at first, just looking at her half brother. When he was about to say something to break the silence, she spoke, saying, “Yeah. You guys messed up by going so deep. You could have died.”

“Yeah. We could have.” Sebastian sighed. Glancing up for a moment, he noticed Penny and Harvey walk by with more trays of food. It seemed Penny was joining Sam and Harvey was going with Abigail. After another moment, he said “Demetrius probably thinks I’m a real ‘danger’ now right? Should I start looking for somewhere else to stay when I get back?”

“Huh?” Maru gave Sebastian a rather confused look, looking him over as if trying to figure out whether or not he was kidding. “Dad was upset, yeah. So was mom. They were worried that you wouldn’t recover. Dad’s studied some of the local monsters before. He knows how dangerous they can be! I know they aren’t going to kick you out over this, though. They just want you back home!”

“Sure,” Sebastian said. “I guess we’ll see when I get back.”

“Yeah. I guess we will,” she replied. After another bit of silence between them, she smiled and said, “You know, even after all of this, I am a little jealous.”

Now Sebastian looked back up at her. “Jealous?”

“Yes! Not about what ended up happening, obviously, but… well, I would love to go exploring in the mines. It’s full of minerals and rare monster-derived substances, so I could get some of the rare components I need for my inventions! Dad would flip, though, so I’ve never tried going.”

“Well…” Sebastian frowned a bit, both at the thought of Maru wandering off into the mines and at what he was about to say. “…Demetrius wouldn’t be wrong to flip. The slimes and bugs aren’t that bad, but the rock crabs are more dangerous than they look. Then those chirping things deeper down are what we were trying to run from when we ended up in that slime pit. If you want something, just go buy it from Clint.”

“You’re right that it’s dangerous, but Clint doesn’t carry everything I need.” Seemingly deciding not to push the issue any further, she changed track by saying, “I brought your motorcycle back home, by the way.”

“Oh. Thanks, I guess. Nothing happened to it while we were gone, right?”

“No, it’s fine. I think someone might live in the mines, but even if that’s the case, they must not have been interested in it! I hope you don’t mind, but I took a look at it. I’ve never really gotten the chance to see it up close in all these years! I thought I could do some minor repairs or upkeep for you while you were away…”

“You don’t need to do that,” he said. His tone added that he didn’t want her to either.

“No, I really don’t!” she said, laughing a bit. “You keep it in really great shape! I couldn’t find anything to do! Maybe I could make some minor upgrades to it, but I wouldn’t do that without asking you.”

Sebastian was quiet. He wasn’t really sure what to say to that. Fortunately, he was spared having to figure it out. Penny soon appeared besides Maru, smiling at the two of them.

“Harvey says he needs to talk to Sam,” Penny explained. “He could probably use the sleep anyway. We woke him up with breakfast.”

Maru turned back toward Penny, giving her a smile. “Oh! Well, we should probably go anyway. I know you have some work to do later, right?”

Penny nodded. “I need to prepare some homework for Vincent and Jas.” She turned toward Sebastian for a moment to say, “It was nice to see you! I hope you feel better.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Sebastian!” Maru said, waving at him. “I’ll tell mom and dad that you’re awake!”

“Alright,” Sebastian said. Then, as a thought crossed his mind, he said, “Oh, and happy birthday, Maru.”

His half-sister smiled over at him, then let herself out. A moment later, he watched Harvey and Sam walk by, the blonde grinning and waving at him. For some reason, the way that the warm sensation he felt upon seeing Sam contrasted with the… more unpleasant feelings he had about Maru made Sebastian turn red, causing him to turn away. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw how that made Sam’s grin fade. That, naturally, made him feel terrible, but now it was too late. Sam had disappeared into the hallway.

As Sebastian lay there, not really feeling like finishing what was left of his meal, he wondered what Harvey needed with Sam. For that matter, what had his friend talked about with Penny? He hoped that the… events of the mine hadn’t been shared. Even if Sam trusted Penny, in a small town like this, it was easy for word to get around. If Penny let something slip to Pam, that drunken woman would blab it the whole town that same night at the saloon! Harvey could be a little better, considering he was a doctor, but he’d likely take notes on the conversation that Maru would later read. From there it would reach Demetrius and Robin, then it would spread until even the strange man in the tower outside of town knew about it! Sebastian would have liked to talk about it to someone, sure, but in a town like this there just wasn’t anyone he’d be willing to bring it up to. Even Abigail, their friend for so long, was a risk. If she gave it away to Caroline, gossip would spread like wildfire. It wasn’t so much that Sebastian cared about the opinions of a bunch of people in a town he hated, but they could certainly make life difficult. They risked being kicked out of their homes and, in Sam’s case, losing employment if they were perceived to be… different. Sebastian just hoped Sam understood that too.

In reality, Sam’s conversation with Penny had been very standard. She had expressed how happy she was to see he was okay, then they talked a little bit about Vincent. There wasn’t much to it at all. As for Harvey… 

The doctor glanced down at his clipboard as his blonde patient hopped up on the exam table. “Alright Sam,” he said, “what can I help you with?”

“Well… it’s about Seb,” the younger man responded, as though that answered everything.

“So you said. What about him?”

“Uh… first, doctor-patient confidentiality is real, right? It’s not like the cuddling thing, right?”

“Yes, it’s very real, Sam. I can even lose my license if it’s proven I violated it.”

“Cool,” Sam said, though he still glanced away, looking uncharacteristically timid. “So… when we were down in the mines, we stripped our clothes off and tried to stay warm! Then… something happened.” 

Harvey raised an eyebrow, but he thought he saw where this was going. “Sam, in tense situations like that, sometimes our bodies react in ways we don’t want them to. I understand it’s embarrassing, but there’s nothing wrong with you if, in the excitement of the moment…”

“Huh?” Sam interrupted, his face turning such a bright shade of red that Harvey was starting to wonder if he didn’t have some sort of circulatory issue. “No! It’s not that, man! I didn’t get a hard-on or anything!”

“Oh,” Harvey said, his own face reddening with the embarrassment of the misunderstanding. “I’m sorry, Sam, I really shouldn’t have assumed anything. What did happen then?”

Sam was quiet for a little bit, seemingly trying to decide what to say and giving himself a moment to calm down. “Seb,” he finally said. “He kissed me while we were down there.”

“Ah,” Harvey replied. This was going to be a bit more complicated than an inconvenient erection. Two of his patients were about to be forced to confront their sexuality in an incredibly tiny town. He needed to handle this delicately. “Well, did you kiss him back?” he asked, immediately cursing himself internally as he realized that may not have been the best approach.

“No! Uh… No, but… I didn’t stop him or anything either,” Sam replied, his hands going to his knees as he slouched a bit, gaze turned toward the floor. “It’s not that I’m worried about that, though. I don’t really care if it turns out he likes guys. It’s just that Seb was acting weird last night and he seems kinda weird this morning too.”

“Hm. That’s very mature of you, Sam.” Harvey grabbed the nearby stool, dragging it closer to the blonde, then taking a seat. He sighed as he considered the younger man, then said, “Sam, you need to understand that the two of you were in a very difficult situation. Normally, it’s very important to listen to your body and to your emotional state, but in cases like this, we don’t act like we usually would.”

“I get that. It’s just… I’m worried things are gonna get weird with Seb. Sometimes he does stuff like this, then regrets it. Usually I can help him get over it, but I’m usually not part of the problem.”

“I don’t think you should see yourself as a problem for Sebastian. In any case, you just woke up yesterday. He just woke up last night. I wouldn’t put too much stock in how he’s acting right now. Focus on feeling better. You can use this time to consider how you feel about what happened too.”

“How I feel about it? What do you mean?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at the doctor.

“I mean that you can decide how you feel about Sebastian kissing you. I know that he initiated things and that it might seem unfair that you’re being forced to confront these sorts of feelings too, but it’s important that you sort things out for yourself to move forward.”

Sam only looked more confused. “I don’t really think I’ve got a ton to sort out.” 

Harvey gave the blonde a sympathetic look, then stood up and went to the nearby cabinet, pulling a pad and pen from it. “Well, if you change your mind later, you can come by the clinic anytime. That said, I’m not really very well qualified for this kind of thing. I did go to school with a very good councilor who now has her own practice in Zuzu City, though. I can…”

“Harvey,” Sam interrupted, “you’re just not getting it, man! I don’t need to figure anything out. Sure, the whole thing was confusing, but I don’t think Seb meant to kiss me. I’m just scared that it’s gonna fuck up our friendship.”

The doctor went quiet, stopping his scribbling, then sighed. “Sam, I’m not trying to antagonize you. I’m just worried that you’re focusing too much on what you think Sebastian is feeling. If you end up being wrong and the kiss was more… real than that, I don’t want you to lash out in anger because you weren’t prepared for it.”

“Why would I get angry at Seb over that? I don’t mind if he wants to kiss me,” Sam said, surprising Harvey and himself with how quickly that answer came. Wide-eyed, he let out a nervous laugh, then said, “I mean… it’s not like I’ve thought about that kind of thing before, but Sebastian’s really important to me.”

Harvey had to stifle a laugh. He certainly wasn’t laughing at Sam, after all, and didn’t want to give that impression, but this was something of a relief. Sam was fairly close to figuring things out for himself. If they were lucky, Sebastian would be too. Even so, the fact that they were in such a small town was a concern. As their doctor, Harvey couldn’t help but feel responsible for their well-being, especially now that Sam had trusted him enough to confide in him. 

“Just give it a little thought,” he said. “After everything is over, you’ll probably have to talk about this with Sebastian. I know you three go to the together saloon a lot, but maybe you should go somewhere that you and Sebastian can be alone. Emotions can run high with these sorts of conversations. You don’t want other people getting mixed up in it.” A thought occurred to Harvey and, before he had the chance to consider if it was the right thing to say, he added, “If you two do decide that you want to pursue something, that’s perfectly natural. I know you might want to avoid Joja and Pierre’s to avoid rumors, so I’m always happy to sell you any supplies you might need. Even if you don’t want to get them through me, just make sure you always use condoms and water-based lubricants. I know things like truffle oil can seem luxurious, but they can cause the latex in condoms to break down and…”

“Alright! Uh… that’s all I really wanted to talk to you about,” Sam said, looking a bit uncomfortable. “You should probably check on Seb. I’d bet my whole paycheck that he didn’t finish his food.”

With a laugh, Harvey nodded his head and the two left the exam room to rejoin the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken a little while, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one is in the works!  
> By the way, I took away the comment moderation, so comments should show up immediately from now on.


	9. Summer 10, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abigail leaves the clinic.

Abigail was laying injured in the depths of the mines. Her leg was bent at a strange angle, the bone inside shattered. Her clothes were in tatters. Her sword lay several yards away, well outside of her reach. The air was cold and humid, while the ground below her was a wet slop of slime and dirt. She was fairly sure that the end was upon her, but at least Sam and Sebastian hadn’t come with her into the mines this time. She was going to meet her end, but she didn’t drag her friends down with her. There was a certain satisfaction to be had in that, she thought. 

Laying there, she could see shadowy figures begin to congregate around her. They were void spirits, a sort of monster said to live deep, deep underground. Some were larger and more solidly built than the others. These, she had heard, were called brutes, and they were melee fighters. A few others were dressed in strange outfits and held simple staffs. These she understood were spellcasters. They were forming a circle around her. Perhaps they would finish her off? Perhaps she was extraordinarily lucky and they would take pity on an injured girl?

One of the void spirits pushed in front of the others. It was a brute with what looked like a shadowy purple mustache. It looked down at her in silence for a few seconds, then began to speak. At first, she could only see its lips moving. She knew it had to be making some sound, but its voice sounded so distant that she couldn’t quite make it out. Soon, though, it became louder.

“Abigail,” it said. “Abigail! Abigail, wake up! I brought breakfast!”

The purple-haired girl let out a sound that was half-way between a snore and a snort, then opened her eyes, seeing Harvey standing in front of her bed with a tray of food in his hands. After rubbing at her eyes a bit, she sat up in bed, then smiled up at him.

“Oh, hey,” she said. “Breakfast smells good. Thanks Harvey.”

Harvey placed the tray on her lap with a smile. “It’s no trouble. While you three are here, it’s my responsibility to keep you fed and healthy. Speaking of which, I have some good news for you.”

Abigail raised an eyebrow at the doctor as she began to dig into the pancakes. Mouth still full of food, she asked, “Yeah? What’s that?”

“I’ve gotten your discharge paperwork ready,” he replied. “Since you’ve recovered so well and live right next door, I feel comfortable letting you go home today. That is… so long as you promise to take it slow these next few days. I know your wounds weren’t as extensive as Sam’s or Sebastian’s, but you still shouldn’t be exerting yourself more than necessary. You don’t want to end up back here, I’m sure.”

“I really don’t. I need to catch up on some of my classes anyway. Being in here put me pretty far behind on some assignments.” As Abigail paused in her speech, she noticed that she could hear voices coming from elsewhere in the room. Voices that didn’t belong to either of her friends. “Hey, is someone else here?”

“Yes, Maru and Penny are visiting. I’m afraid I’ll have to cut Penny’s visit with Sam a little short, though. I need to speak with him. Once I’m finished, I’ll come back and formally discharge you.”

“Thanks,” she replied with a wide smile. As she watched him leave, she scarfed down the rest of her breakfast. The pancakes, she thought, could have used a little more syrup, but they were still pretty good. Certainly fluffier than the half-burnt, strangely rubbery disks her dad made. The eggs were perfect, with firm whites and nice, runny yolks. As for the hashbrowns, she personally liked them with some ketchup and just a little of the hotsauce used in her favorite eel dish, but she wasn’t going to turn up her nose even at bog standard hashbrowns like these.

Her meal finished, Abigail put the tray aside and hopped out of bed. She walked out of the partitioned third of the room she had been staying in, glanced into Sam’s now-empty third for a moment, then went over to Sebastian’s area. There, she found her black-haired friend half-sitting in his bed, a sour look on his face as he poked at his own meal with his fork. To Abby’s surprise, he had actually eaten most of the food. The eggs were all he had left. Honestly, though, the more she thought about it, the less shocking it seemed. He hadn’t eaten in days, as far as she knew. He must have been quite hungry, actually, since even those eggs looked like they had a few small bites taken from them. That said, the hate was real. It was clear that he wasn’t really going to be eating any more.

With that in mind, Abigail reached out quickly and swiped the plate of fried eggs and Sebastian’s fork away from him before he even seemed to notice she was standing there. He let out a gasp as she did so and was left staring up at her in surprise.

“Harvey’s cooking is better than you thought it would be, right?” she asked before taking a bite of what were now her eggs.

As the initial surprise passed, Sebastian looked away from her and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not bad. The pancakes were pretty good.” Just as Abigail started to wonder if snatching away his uneaten food hadn’t been the wrong first move, he looked back over at her with the smallest trace of a smile on his face and said, “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Yeah. So am I. Harvey says I’ll be able to go home today. I wish you guys hadn’t ended up…” She trailed off, then shook her head. “Well, when did you wake up anyway?”

“Last night. I only stayed up for a little while, though.”

“Last night?! Man, you should have woken us up!”

“Well,” Sebastian said, his gaze now cast down toward the empty dishes on his tray, “Sam was awake, actually.”

“Wow. So neither of you woke me up? I’ve been really worried about you!” Abby said. When she saw the frown on Sebastian’s face, though, she sighed and gave him a little smile. “Guess I don’t have to feel bad about stealing your eggs then.”

This brought a short laugh from the young man. “Like you would have anyway.”

“Hey, I normally feel at least a little bad!”

“Sure. Not like it matters. You know I don’t eat them anyway.”

“Yeah.” Abigail shrugged as she finished off the last few bites, then put the plate and fork back on Sebastian’s tray. “You’re really missing out, though.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” he replied. He then went rather quiet as he looked over toward the door to the room.

Abigail gave him a few seconds as she tried to figure out what was up. Finally, she gave in and asked, “Sebby, are you okay?”

Sebastian looked back over at her and shifted uncomfortably in the bed. He seemed to be considering what to say. To Abby, that meant he was hiding something that was just going to make his mood worse if he didn’t talk about it.

“Come on,” she said. “Spill.”

After a few more moments of silence, it finally came. “Do you know what’s up with Sam?”

“Sam? I don’t think anything’s up. He’s just talking to Harvey, right? Did he say something to you?”

Again, she found that she had to wait for Sebastian’s reply. “No. I guess he didn’t, but… Abby, you remember how you and Red found us, right?”

“It would be kind of hard to forget, Seb. I’m pretty sure your bare asses were starting to turn blue.”

His frown gave away that he wasn’t very amused at the comment, but he continued regardless. “Yeah, well, you don’t… I mean, you aren’t going to tell your family, right? You don’t think Harvey or Red will tell anyone, do you?”

Abigail breathed a sigh of relief. “Is that all you’re worried about? No, Seb, I’m not going to tell anyone. Harvey’s a doctor. Red’s a little bit of a weirdo, but he doesn’t come across as gossipy to me. No one’s going to find out.”

“Do you think Sam would tell anyone?”

Now Abigail hesitated. She really liked Sam. He and Sebastian were her best friends! That said… he wasn’t known for being subtle. Before she could come up with an answer, Sebastian continued.

“Penny was just here visiting him. You know she lives with Pam.”

Abigail bit into her bottom lip as she picked up on exactly what Sebastian was imagining. Sam telling the story to Penny, who would then pass it on to Pam, who would pass it on to the whole town after a few drinks. Even so, she shook her head at him.

“So?” she asked. “Look, I would have done the same thing if I was freezing to death! Even if people talk, it’s just going to be embarrassing for a little while, then everyone will move on. No one’s going to think it was anything serious because of that!”

There was only silence in response.

“Even if it was serious,” she added, now feeling less secure in her position, “I don’t think anyone in town would care if you guys were…”

Again, she got silence in response.

“Sebastian? Are you…?”

The conversation was cut off rather quickly when the door to the room swung open again. It seemed that whatever Sam had been discussing with Harvey had only taken a short amount of time and, based on the smile on his face, it couldn’t have been all that serious. 

The blonde blinked a few times as he saw his friends’ serious expressions. “Uh… hey guys.”

“Hey, Sam,” they both said, almost in unison. The fact that only an awkward silence followed that left Sam feeling a little uneasy.

“If you’ll excuse me, Sam,” Harvey said, adjusting his tie a bit and breaking the silence, “I just need to get Abigail’s discharge paperwork so she can go home.”

“Alright, Harvey!” Sam gave Abigail a wide grin as the doctor walked away. “Glad you get to go home! Tell Pierre and Caroline I said hey.”

“Yeah,” Sebastian said. “Good luck. I hope they don’t go too hard on you.”

“Thanks guys. My dad seemed a little pissed when he came by the other day, but hopefully he calmed down by now.”

“My dad seemed pretty mad too,” Sam said, rubbing at the back of his head. “I think I’m gonna get chewed out when I’m home.”

Sebastian sighed and moved the tray off of his bed, then got into more of a laying position. “Hopefully none of us end up having to move out. I don’t know how you two are doing, but I’ve barely got enough money saved up to make a deposit on a new place.”

“Sebby, our parents might be pissed, but I don’t think they’re gonna throw us out on the street after we just got out of the clinic,” Abigail replied. “Even if it did happen, it’s not gonna happen to all of us at once. We can crash at each other’s places while we figure everything out.”

“You think Pierre and Caroline are gonna let me or Sam live with you?”

“It’s not gonna happen anyway, Seb.” Sam walked over to the side of the bed, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. He watched as Sebastian’s face turned red at the action and frowned when his friend pulled away.

“Yeah… Jodi wouldn’t kick you out, I guess.” Sebastian almost sounded bitter as he said that. “Sorry. I just… Maru said Demetrius was worried, but I don’t know how he’s going to react.”

“I don’t think Robin would let him kick you out, man,” Sam said.

“I agree with Sam, Sebby. I know you’ve had problems with Robin and Demetrius, but Robin really does seem to care about you. You have to stop worrying so much or you’re not going to get any better!”

Sebastian rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything further. This, of course, earned him a roll of the eyes from Abigail in return.

“Look,” the purple-haired girl said as she started to walk back toward her third of the room, “I’m going to get my stuff together. Sorry for not hanging longer, but I really want to get home and take a shower. The Luau’s tomorrow, so I’ll try to snag you guys some of the soup to go, alright?”

It took Abigail just enough time to get her things together that Harvey was waiting for her when she came back out. After signing a few documents, thanking him again, and saying goodbye to her friends, she left the clinic. It only took her a moment to get back home, of course. Her father was manning the store, so she only gave him a brief hug. Her mother, though, was in their home behind the shop. The two of them ended up chatting for a while. It was the happiest Abigail had seen Caroline in some time. Maybe it would all turn out alright after all.

Even so, her little conversation with Sebastian kept coming back to her. Part of her wanted to say that Sebastian was just confused right now. Things got really bad in the mines, after all. His emotions could still have just been out of whack. He had, after all, never said outright that he thought he was gay. That answer just didn’t feel satisfactory, though. After all, Sebastian and Sam having a thing for each other made way too much sense. The two hung out quite a lot, even when Abigail wasn’t around. Sebastian was very, very difficult to make friends with. She had managed, sure, but even when she was younger it had surprised her how Sam had been able to break through his barriers more easily than anyone else. To this day, Sam tended to be the one that calmed Sebastian down when he got in his moods, despite Abigail having known him a bit longer. At one point she had thought she may end up with Seb and everything, but it became clear in recent years that he wasn’t that into her. Similarly, despite everyone else thinking Sam would end up with Penny, Abigail knew for a fact that he didn’t really think of her that way. None of that bothered her, of course. If the two of them did end up becoming an item, great for them!

What did bother her, though, was that she was beginning to doubt what she had said to Sebastian. Would some of the villagers end up causing trouble for Sebastian and Sam? Now that she thought about it, Clint had always been a bit odd in his views on romance, George was notoriously old-fashioned about a lot of things, and she had only ever heard bad things about Demetrius…

It was in the evening, when she was walking from her room to the kitchen to get a snack, that she heard something that made her freeze in her tracks.

“I just don’t see that it’s a problem.” It was Caroline. It seemed she and Pierre were talking in their bedroom.

“How can you say that? Our daughter almost died!” Pierre replied.

“That’s not what you’re talking about, though. Abigail has always had these… strange interests, Pierre. You know it’s unfair to blame them for everything.”

“They only egg her on! Sebastian is just as into this doom and gloom stuff as she is, and Sam always has his hair in that weird style! Besides, Sebastian is always dressing in black, and I think he might dye his hair!”

“I’ve tried to get her to dress differently,” Caroline said, increasingly sounding annoyed. “She’s the one who keeps refusing it. As for the dye, if she’s still dying it, I don’t think she’s doing it here at home. Either way, maybe you and I are just getting old… I did plenty of things my parents didn’t approve of, Pierre.”

“They’re not a good influence, Caroline. Besides, you heard what they did in the mines didn’t you?”

“Pierre, I don’t…”

“I heard,” Pierre continued, not letting his wife interrupt, “that Red found them naked, in each other’s arms!”

“What does that have to do with Abby?”

“The way Abigail dresses… don’t you think she already looks a little like she might be… like them? It’s not going to help if she hangs around them all day.”

Abigail’s heart sunk and she immediately felt anger start to swell up inside of her. She hadn’t just been wrong, she had been very wrong. She couldn’t believe that in her own family… 

“What were you saying that I look like?” she asked, stepping into her parents room, fixing her father with a glare.

Pierre looked taken back at first. From the way he turned pale, it was clear he hadn’t meant for her to hear. Soon enough, though, he was glaring right back at her.

“I think you know how you dress, Abby,” he said. “It’s like you want to scare away all the nice guys who might want to date you!”

Abigail turned her gaze towards her mother, who was glancing off to the side, not wanting to make eye-contact with either of them at the moment. 

After turning her attention back to her father, Abigail said, “There’s nothing wrong with how I dress! Even if there was, what would it have to do with Sebastian and Sam?”

“Hanging out with them is just going to encourage you to keep acting like this! We kept letting it slip by and now you almost got killed in those mines!”

“They almost got killed too! It was my idea to go down there in the first place!”

“Of course you got that idea in your head! Instead of focusing on your classes, you’re always hanging out with them, sharing gossip about the farmers, and playing that dungeon game.”

“Oh wow. The game, dad? Maybe it’s the rock and roll too?”

“Don’t use that tone with me, Abby! You know, I work hard selling quality goods to keep a roof over our heads, I don’t charge you rent, I don’t ask you to chip in for food, and you still act out all the time!”

This earned Pierre a roll of the eyes from Abigail. “Yeah, it must be backbreaking work selling the stuff Red and the farmhands ship out.”

“JojaMart drives dozens of smalls businesses into bankruptcy every day! You have no idea how hard it is to make sure our customers’ demands are always met! Why do you think I have that garden out back? The crops from the farm aren’t always enough!”

“Really? Is that why Red stormed out of here the day he heard you telling Gus that you were the one who grew one of the cauliflowers from his farm? You know Sam told me that Blues and Violet had to drag Red out of JojaMart that day to keep him from switching to Morris, right?” 

“That’s not the point, Abby! We can barely afford to keep the shop running, and you won’t take your life or our future seriously! You need to stop screwing around, settle down to a normal life, and stop hanging around with those two!”

“Pierre,” Caroline interrupted, “that’s enough. I don’t think either of the boys meant for all of this to happen.” 

It was too late, though. Abigail and Pierre were staring one another down. It was Abigail who broke it off first, but Pierre’s victory was short lived.

“Whatever,” she said, walking out of the room and toward the door out of the house. “I’ll be back later.”

“I didn’t say you could leave! After all of that, I…” Pierre stopped as the door slammed. He turned to talk to his wife, only to find that she was already on her way to the sunroom. Grumbling, he went off to his room to sulk.

As for Abigail, she was fuming when she left the shop. She could feel tears welling up, her fists were clenched tight, and she couldn’t help but stomp with each step. She noticed movement in the corner of her eye. It was that strange old man that lived in that old tower outside of town. He was looking in her direction. When she turned to face him, he swished his cloak and disappeared into a flash of light.

Well… at least there was something she could do to take her mind off what a terrible person her father turned out to be. Figuring out what the farmers were up to had been a dead end, at least as far as the mine adventure was concerned. Maybe figuring out what was up with the old man would be a better use of her time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your support! I love seeing comments and kudos, even if I don't always respond to the former! 
> 
> BTW, I got the Before the Farmer comic in the mail recently! It's very cute! It isn't terribly story heavy, but I do suggest you check it out if you can!


	10. Summer 14, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Abby go get pizza.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update on 2020-07-11:   
> One of my awesome commenters pointed out that the text message segments may have some accessibility issues. To try to fix this, I'm posting more plain text versions of the text conversations in this chapter in the comments below. Please let me know if you think it works, and I'll take any feedback into consideration when I go do the same for the other chapters. It's just this one for now to test the idea out.

After Abigail left, Sebastian and Sam were left relying mostly on one another for company at the clinic. Fortunately, things were only a little awkward. Since they were still recovering and honestly rather bored, both of them spent a fair amount of time sleeping. They also spent some time going through tests and strengthening their legs with short bouts of walking, accompanied by Harvey, of course. In the time they were alone and awake together, they mostly talked about fun but frivolous topics. Solarian Chronicles, upcoming films, music, skateboarding, and comic books were all on the table! 

The one topic that was off-limits, though neither of them admitted it, was what had happened in the mines. Of course, this was not without its problems. Neither wanted to bring it up, but as the days went by without the other doing so, each increasingly felt like something was wrong. 

Abby did visit on the evening of the eleventh as she had promised. Like the previous year, the soup was spectacular. It seemed Red and the farmhands had contributed some particularly high quality ingredients again, and the governor’s reception to the previous year’s soup had encouraged others in the town to really give it their all when putting the event together. Abby also helped them pass the time by telling them about what had gone on at the event. Apparently, Solar had spent quite a lot of time with Alex, which had ignited a tiny bit of gossip among some of the villagers. Though she didn’t outright say it, this was her way of subtly warning Sebastian that she had perhaps given the people in Pelican Town a little too much credit.

Other than Abigail, the two continued to receive some visitors. Now that Sebastian was awake, Maru came more as a visitor than a nurse. Robin had stopped by particularly early on the twelfth to see Sebastian before she had to go dig yet another fish pond at the farm. Sam was happy to see that Robin’s presence at least cheered Sebastian up a little bit. Demetrius never showed up, but Sam couldn’t help but feel like that was for the best. As for the blonde’s own family, they visited once more to let Vincent spend a little more time with his brother and catch up on things. The young boy was quite curious about the mines, but Sam, after being prompted by his father, avoided making it all sound too gruesome or too exciting, lest Vincent get frightened or decide to explore on his own. 

It was on the thirteenth that Sam and Sebastian were discharged. Whatever difference there had been in the severity of their wounds, they both healed up quickly enough for Harvey to send them home. Of course, Sam first had to promise to stay off his skateboard, and Sebastian had to promise to cut back on the smoking, but at least they weren’t stuck in that clinic any longer. They promised to hang out soon, but went their separate ways. Sebastian apparently had quite a bit of work to catch up on. While Sam did need to get back to Joja at some point, he didn’t really have a backlog of work or anything. He was, however, eager to get some gel in his hair and sleep in his own room.

After returning home, Sam was greeted by an excited Vincent and two happy parents. Though it was clear from Kent’s rather reserved display of joy that they would still be having their talk, it seemed they wouldn’t be having it that day. It was likely that they wanted Sam to have a good first day back. The four of them spent a few hours together, chatting about what was on television, what Vincent had learned from Penny, and what they hoped for from upcoming events. Eventually, they had a bit of casserole for dinner, after which Sam retreated to his room, where he spent some time listening to music and eventually dozed off.

The next day, Sam was woken up by a loud knocking at the door to the house. Cursing to himself, he pulled a pillow over his head, trying to drown out the noise. Who could be bothering them so early?

“Sam, honey,” Jodi called out, “could you get the door? I’m a little busy with the dishes!”

Sam groaned, but rolled out of bed. He glanced at his phone to check the time… Oh. It was already 11:30. Maybe it wasn’t so early after all.

Not one to be all that shy and eager to have the knocking finally stop, Sam only bothered to throw on a pair of boxers that had little stardrops printed on a black background. Otherwise undressed, he went over to the door and opened it up, rubbing his eyes as the light of day shone in on him and made it difficult to identify the figure standing right outside.

Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he was finally able to make out the stubbly cheeks, tattered Joja jacket, old gridball shirt, and sour expression of his coworker, Shane. In the somewhat older man’s hand was an envelope in that familiar JojaBlue™ color. His face was red, indicating that he was a bit surprised by seeing Sam in nothing but boxers, that he was angry about something, or that he had already started drinking for the day. Possibly all three. In any case, he pushed the envelope into Sam’s hand.

“Morris heard that you’re back from the clinic,” Shane explained, turning his gaze toward the ground. “Since you survived that stupid stunt, he put you back on the schedule.”

“Oh… uh… great. When does he want me back in?” Sam said, taken a little by surprise that his boss had sent Shane instead of just calling.

“Monday.”

“Alright. Thanks for letting me know,” he said. After a few seconds of silence passed between them, he added, “Do you wanna come in?”

Shane shook his head and slipped his hands into his pockets. “No. I’ve gotta get back to work.”

“Work? Man, I thought you didn’t work weekends?”

“Since you’ve been gone, we’ve has fallen behind. Morris needed someone to come in over the weekend to catch up. Since we’ve only got one employee authorized to use the POS system…”

“I get it. She mans the register and you’re stuck doing my job.”

“Yeah. Well. It’s not terrible. At least I’m picking up extra hours. Some of us actually need the money, you know?” Shane let out a sigh. “I need to go back. Bye, Sam.”

Feeling a little awkward about the money comment, Sam just waved Shane off and shut the door. Heading back into his room, he flopped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. The envelope ended up next to him on the bed, still unopened. He knew the most important part: Morris wanted him back on Monday. He could deal with whatever else his boss wanted later.

Only a little while after he laid back down, when his eyes started to shut on their own and he was just about to fall asleep, he heard the shortened version of the JojaCola jingle he had set as his text notification. It was a three-way message conversation initiated by Abigail and including Sebastian.

It read, “SEBBY! SAM! i heard you 2 got outta the clinic yesterday! how are you feeling?”

Sam waited for a moment to see if Sebastian replied first. He was honestly curious how his friend was doing. That was far too much to ask, it turned out. Once it became clear that Sebastian wouldn’t be responding first, Sam started typing up a message of his own.

“hey aby. im good :) how r u?”

“fine. just relaxing a little after turning in a paper.”

“🌳?”

“no. harv says to stay away from the forest. too many slimes. don’t wanna end up back in the clinic yet.”

“lol yet?”

“hey, this isn’t gonna make me give up on wanting to do some adventuring! anyway, if you 2 are up to it, you should meet me at the saloon. solar’s picking up everyone’s tab today.”

“y?”

“who cares?”

“omw”

And so, Sam began to get dressed. It only took him a couple minutes to throw on his usual shirt, jacket, and pants. What took significantly longer was gelling his hair into his signature style. It was bad enough that people had seen him with his hair down in the clinic. He wasn’t going to walk into the saloon looking like that. 

That jingle played again at the perfect time. Since he’d just finished styling his hair, he wasn’t at risk of getting any gel on his phone. It seemed Sebastian had finally responded to their conversation.

“Hey. I’m feeling alright. I’m going to be busy the next few days finishing some jobs for clients, so I can’t hang out,” the message read.

Sam frowned at this, but just pocketed his phone, his wallet, and the envelope anyway. Even though they’d just spent quite a lot of time together, he kind of missed Sebastian. Laying around a clinic together wasn’t exactly the same as really hanging out. Well, he wasn’t going to miss out on free food just because Seb was busy! Besides, Abby was fun to hang out with! Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure this was the first time the two of them had hung out without Sebastian in a while! The clinic obviously didn’t count. Maybe it would be good.

As be walked toward the door, Jodi called out again. “Sam?” she asked. “Are you going out? Aren’t you still recovering?”

“Don’t worry mom,” He said, turning toward the kitchen with a wide grin. “Me and Abby are just getting some pizza.”

“Just you and Abigail? What about Sebastian?”

“Seb’s busy.”

Sam heard the kitchen faucet turn off. A few seconds later, his mother was standing out in the living room, smiling at him. “Well, just don’t stay out too long.” She brought a hand up to her mouth and let out a soft laugh. “I’m surprised you didn’t invite Penny, but Abby’s a nice girl too… even if she is a little bit more of a troublemaker.” 

“Huh?”

“Nevermind, Sam. You just have fun, okay? If Gus has any of that fresh cranberry sauce he makes, can you get a nice big container of it? It’s a lot nicer than the canned stuff from Joja.”

“You think so? I always liked the canned stuff! It’s got those marks so you know where to cut it… Anyway, sure, I’ll get some if he’s got it in stock. See you later.”

With that, Sam left the house. It was already a little past noon thanks to all the time he spent doing his hair. Even so, he made it to the saloon quickly enough. What surprised him was that there was already something of a crowd of people! Usually business was slow until the evening. Word did spread quickly in such a small town, though. There weren’t many people who would pass on a free meal, especially if it was the quietest of the farmhands offering it. As far as Sam knew, Solar didn’t have many friends around the town. Well, except Alex apparently. 

Inside the Stardrop Saloon, Sam took a look around at all the familiar faces. Naturally, Gus was there, working hard behind the counter. Emily was going from table to table with people’s orders. Marnie was sitting with Lewis, giggling at some dumb joke. Elliott, Leah, and, to Sam’s surprise, Harvey were all together drinking some wine. Pam was slumped over the counter, several empty beer glasses bunched together near her. Willy was enjoying some mead near the fireplace and chatting with Caroline of all people. Pierre and Clint were off in a corner, rather sour expressions on their faces while they muttered something to one another. Even George and Evelyn were there that day, though they were just having a bit of tea and some chocolate cake rather than anything stronger. As usual, George looked much grumpier than his kind wife.

Sitting at the bar, in the middle of all those people, were Alex and Solar, who seemed to be happily chatting with one another. Sam could swear he saw a big bouquet of flowers sitting in a vase on the counter next to Alex. Before he could go over and ask what this was all about, though, he heard Abby call out from the back room.

“Sam!” she said. “Over here!”

The blonde made his way over to his friend and sat down on the sofa next to her. “Hey. It’s really busy today, huh?”

“Oh yeah. I’m surprised Demetrius, Robin, and Shane aren’t here! Actually, what about your parents?”

“My mom’s doing chores at home and my dad’s probably with Vincent. Shane’s stuck working. He’s probably gonna be pissed he’s not here.”

“Better than my dad,” Abigail said, rolling her eyes. “He’s here and he’s pissed.”

“Yeah? What’s up with him? Actually, what’s up with the farmer guy and Alex?”

“You didn’t see the big bouquet when you walked in?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What about it?” Sam asked, increasingly confused.

“I’ll tell you while we eat. I’m starving.”

So, the two of them put in their orders when Emily came back to check on them. Each of them went with a large pizza. Supreme for Sam, extra cheese and mushrooms for Abigail. Perhaps it was a bit mean, but since someone else was footing the bill, they might as well get enough to have left overs. It turned out that they didn’t have the cranberry sauce that Jodi had asked for, so Sam ordered some chocolate cake to go for her instead.

The two chatted a bit about Abigail’s class work until the pizzas showed up. Sam was surprised to find that he was actually interested in her art history class. He wasn’t really sure what that kind of profession entailed, but he imagined it beat mopping at Joja.

The food soon arrived. Sam looked over at Abby’s and asked, “No meat today?

“I still feel a little weird about killing some of the stuff in the mines,” she replied. “I know the slimes will reform, but what about the dust sprites?”

“You mean the things that tried to kill us?”

“We’re the ones who barged into the mines.”

Sam let out a short laugh as he took a slice of his own pizza. “You sure you wanna be an adventurer?”

“I am! I still want to explore, and I’ll defend myself if monsters attack. I just don’t think I’ll go out of my way to hunt them.”

“I guess that works. Uh… anyway, you were gonna tell me about the flowers?”

Abigail nodded as she finished chewing her current bite of pizza. “Yeah! Dad sold that bouquet to Solar earlier today. He and mom spent part of the morning gossiping about who it might be for. Not like the guy hangs out with a lot of people.”

“Uh-huh…?”

She took another bite and this time continued with her mouth still full. “Turns out he gave it to Alex. You know yesterday was Alex’s birthday, right?”

“No.”

“Yeah, well, it was. I guess Alex opened up about a bunch of personal stuff at the beach. They’ve been getting pretty close without the rest of us noticing it! Now they’re dating.”

Sam froze up for a moment. He then glanced out the door to the back room, seeing how the muscular jock and the smaller farmhand looked so happy at the bar. It brought a smile to the blonde’s face. “Huh. Good for them. I’m kinda surprised you care, though.”

“I don’t care in a bad way, Sam,” she replied. The way she looked at Sam when she said it made him feel vaguely uncomfortable. “You know I don’t usually gossip. This is just something I’m kind of interested in. It’s gonna be hard for the guy in a town like this, you know? Plus, he lives with George.”

“I guess George is kinda old fashioned,” he admitted, rubbing at the back of his head a bit. “I don’t think Evelyn’s gonna care, right? She’s like… the town’s grandma. Wait, you said your dad…”

“Turns out my dad’s not a big fan of this kind of thing.” She sighed. “Not like anyone’s gonna listen to him, though. Except maybe Clint.”

“What about your mom?”

“I don’t think my mom cares that much. Either way, neither of them are Alex’s problem, right? If they drive these guys off, it just means Joja will run them out of business that much faster. There’s gotta be something in those training manuals about this, right?”

“Heh. Yeah. ‘JojaMart reminds its employees that all paying customers are equally appreciated within our stores, offices, movie theaters, and oral surgery clinics.’ Anyway, I’m sorry your dad’s like that.”

“It’s not a big issue for me, I guess. It’s not like I’ve got any girls in my life.” She paused for a moment, putting a finger to the side of her face. “Actually, I guess that Violet does bring me a lot of tasty-looking amethysts. I’m not sure she’s my type though.”

“I didn’t know girls were your type at all?” Sam asked. From how his eyes were locked on her, how one eyebrow was raised, and how he was fidgeting substantially less than normal, it was clear his interest was piqued, even if he was trying to hide it by stuffing his face with more pizza.

“Don’t get me wrong, guys are definitely my type. If the right girl came along, though, I’m not gonna say I’d automatically turn her down.”

“Huh…” He turned a bit red as he went rather quiet. The little smile on his face gave away that he was happy with her answer, though.

“Hey, I’m getting kind of full for right now. Why don’t we play some pool? I know you’re no good against Seb, but maybe you’ve got a chance against me?”

Sam agreed, and the two asked Emily to box up what was left of their food while they played. Now, it turned out that Sam was just awful at the game. Abigail, while not a regular player, had little trouble against him. Even so, it did seem like he was having fun.

About forty minutes after they started playing their first game, they were interrupted by shouting in out in the main area of the saloon. Quickly, both put down their cues and ran out to see what was going on. 

Now, to understand exactly what had happened, it was first important to understand that Pierre did not drink very often. He spent most days at home and, with a few exceptions, only went to the saloon on Fridays. Even then, a small storm was enough to dissuade him from going out at all. Though Pierre could be accused of being many things, a drunk was not one of them. Since he drank so rarely, though, he didn’t have much of a tolerance for his drink. The beers he’d shared with Clint, the frustrations he felt toward his daughter, the stress that he was under because of his business, a few unsavory opinions he had long held, and perhaps some of the insecurities he had about his own marriage all mixed together into a rather poor decision.

Abigail could see that her father was standing in front of a rather enraged Alex, oblivious to the fact that the younger man was both taller and significantly more muscular. Pierre had a smirk on his face. Solar was holding onto Alex’s arm, looking rather nervous as he whispered to his new boyfriend. They currently had all of the gathered townspeople’s attention.

Lewis, finally doing some of his duties as mayor, tried to intervene. He walked over to the three men and began to speak. Though the details were hard to make out, Sam and Abigail more or less understood the gist of what he was saying. It seemed he was trying to get them to just forget the whole thing and was telling Pierre that maybe it was time to head home.

Alex took in a deep breath, nodded, and started to turn around. It was then that, in his poor judgment, Pierre got a final jab in, causing the crowd around him to gasp. Abigail couldn’t hear what he said, but she didn’t need to. Her father pulled out those stupid sunglasses he kept around for when he thought he was being particularly badass, but he never managed to put them on. Instead, Alex whipped around and slammed his fist into Pierre’s face with enough force to knock the shopkeep against the nearby wall!

Abby ran over to her father’s side, quickly joined by Caroline. Though he was bleeding from his nose and his glasses had been shattered, he was still conscious. They helped him up onto his feet. 

“I told you to keep this sort of thing to yourself, Pierre,” Caroline quietly berated him. “I hope this was worth it.”

Abigail looked over at Sam, who was currently standing there wide-eyed in shock. “Sorry to cut things short. Looks like I need to get my dad to the clinic before his mouth gets him in more trouble.”

As they made their way to the door, Pierre glanced over at George, who was currently looking more bitter than ever. “Hey, Mr. Mullner! I hope you’re satisfied with how your grandson turned out.”

Now everyone’s attention was on George. His eyes narrowed and his mouth turned into a thin line as he looked over at his grandson. The same gridball player that had just looked like a behemoth compared to Pierre suddenly shrank under his grandfather’s gaze, and he looked down towards the floor.

“Satisfied?” George hissed. There was total silence as Evelyn moved over to her husband’s side, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m darned proud of him! Took a lotta restraint not to knock your teeth out with that first comment you made. Don’t think I coulda stopped myself if I was ten years younger!”

This proved enough of a defeat for Pierre that he just lowered his head and let his wife and daughter carry him out. A slightly annoyed looking Harvey was close behind him, followed by a totally silent, expressionless Clint.

Finally, Sam seemed to snap out of it. That… had really just happened. He hadn’t really ever expected Alex to be gay! He really didn’t expect Pierre to be homophobic either. Clint wasn’t quite as much of a surprise. In retrospect, it wasn’t even that much of a surprise that George stood up for Alex. He doubted the old man was entirely okay with what his grandson was up to, but no one could accuse George or Evelyn of having anything but love for the boy. A small part of him was slightly disappointed, though, regarding who wasn’t there. Though it sucked that Alex had to go through all of that, he did feel a little satisfied in seeing that most of the town didn’t seem to share Pierre’s opinions. Or… if they did, they were certainly not comfortable expressing them out loud. It would have been nice, though, to see how Jodi, Kent, Robin, Demetrius, or Sebastian reacted to the whole affair.

Now, Jodi was a gossip, so he was sure he’d hear her thoughts after she next spoke with Caroline. He had no idea what his father would think, which worried him a bit. He would hate to think his own dad had something against people for something like this. He doubted Robin was the sort to care, but he had no idea what to think about Demetrius. As for Sebastian…

Sam pulled out his phone as he went back into the other room to gather his and Abigail’s pizza boxes. He started typing up a text message to his best friend that read, “dud u r not gnna beliv it. abys dad jus got ko’d by alex.”


	11. Summer 14, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian receives a text from Sam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 2020-07-20: Check the comments for a plain English transcription of the text message portions.

After parting ways with Sam on the thirteenth, Sebastian made his way back up the mountain path towards his home. He did, despite his promise to Harvey to cut back, stop by the lake to smoke a cigarette and think before actually heading inside. Though things seemed like they might be okay, he still wasn’t sure what Demetrius was going to say. As much as he believed that Robin probably did worry about him, she did tend to take Demetrius’ side against her son, Sebastian felt. If his stepfather did get it in his head that Sebastian was somehow a danger to Maru because of what happened… well, he doubted he’d be home much longer.

As it turned out, things weren’t quite so bad, at least not that day. After hearing from Maru that Sebastian would likely be home that day, Robin had apparently spoken with Red and came home early from working on yet another fish pond. They shared some pumpkin soup while Sebastian listened to stories about his great-grandmother, who had originally been the one to teach his mother the recipe. She also filled him in on how things had been in his absence. Apparently, it could all be summed up with the word “busy.” In addition to her work at the farm, Demetrius had been quite occupied reading some journals and writing a new paper on something or other. While she had explained what it was, Sebastian was mostly just happy to know that his stepfather was occupied.

Eventually, of course, Demetrius and Maru left the lab and joined them. What Sebastian had expected to turn into a dramatic moment had mostly just been awkward. Demetrius said he was happy that Sebastian was okay, asked about Sam and Abigail, then went on what amounted to a brief lecture about how the cold temperatures deep in the mines affected the biology of the slimes that lived down there. It wasn’t the best experience, but it wasn’t nearly what Sebastian had imagined it would be.

Not that there wasn’t still time for things to get worse. 

At any rate, Sebastian eventually retreated into his room. It was true that he was eager to rest a little while in his own bed, but he hadn’t been lying when he said he had work to catch up on. Most of the evening was spent really rushing to put some finishing touches on the extra features that the Wumbus wiki needed, replying to e-mails, and coding a rather simple (but time intensive) mobile app. By the time he went to bed, it was well past three in the morning.

Working so late had a price, especially so soon after sustaining such serious injuries. He ended up oversleeping, only waking up when his phone started playing a short flute tune that told him it was Abby. He felt a little bad about it, but he tried to ignore her at first. She had to know he was okay by now, and he needed at least a little more sleep before getting back to work. This was followed by a short guitar riff that was… significantly harder to ignore. After a bit of back and forth from the two sounds, he finally got around to answering them, telling Sam and Abby that he wouldn’t be joining them that day. Now awake, he decided he might as well get up and do some work.

So, after a quick shower, that was how he spent the next several hours. The Wumbus work was turned in, but he’d be staring at that app for the next few days. At least his friends were keeping each other occupied, and his mother was back to work at the farm, so he wouldn’t be interrupted. The solitude was oddly calming, and it helped him get things done more quickly. He was just considering taking a short break to eat something when that guitar riff played again.

“dud u r not gnna beliv it,” the text read. “abys dad jus got ko’d by alex.”

Sebastian frowned. Alex had always seemed like a bit of an unpleasant jock. Pierre wasn’t exactly the nicest guy in town sometimes, but he doubted the guy could deserve that. “What happened? Is Pierre alright?” he texted back.

“he was tlkin sht abt alex n solar”

He raised an eyebrow at this. “What about them?”

“alex ❤ solar”

The young man let out a sigh. He was sure that Sam’s sloppy style of texting ended up causing the blonde to type more than if he just explained things clearly the first time. “The rumors you mean? Does Pierre think there’s something between them?”

“no dud” Sam texted back, immediately following it up with another text that read, “alex n solar r d8ing”

Now Sebastian’s mouth turned into a thin line. To him, Alex had never seemed like the sort to even be okay with gay people, much less to get into a same-sex romance. Was Sam just buying into a rumor? Certainly Alex might have gotten mad at the accusation that he might be gay. 

“Sam, are you absolutely sure that they’re dating?”

“ya man ask aby. duds wer at the salon w/ ⚘ ⚘ ⚘”

He wasn’t sure how much time he should waste on this kind of thing, but he was admittedly curious. Besides, the town’s reaction to an alleged relationship between two men was… rather interesting to him. So, of course, he texted Abby, saying, “Hey Abby. Sam says your dad got in a fight with Alex. What’s up? Is he okay?”

After a few seconds, he received a reply. It was a picture of Pierre laying in a clinic bed with bandages on his nose and a bit of bruising on his face. Accompanying the image was a message that read, “it wasn’t much of a fight Sebby. dad had too many beers and started saying some really homophobic shit to Alex and Solar.”

“Wow. I didn’t know your dad was like that. Sam says those two are dating. Is that still just a rumor, or…?”

“nope. Solar was paying for everyone to eat and drink for free to celebrate him and Alex being a couple now. I guess it’s pretty serious.”

“We’re talking about the same Alex, right? George and Evelyn’s grandson?”

“is there another Alex in the valley?” she asked. Before Sebastian could respond she added, “can we talk about this later? I need to help mom run the store until dad gets back.”

“Sure. Hope he gets better soon.”

Sebastian immediately switched back to the conversation with Sam, texting him, “I just checked with Abby. Sorry I didn’t believe you, but it seems unbelievable.”

“ya i ddnt thnk alex was gay”

“Neither did I. Do you think he’ll get kicked out?”

“no george was at the salon n told pierre off. i think there cool”

“Good for George. It sucks that Abby’s dad’s like that though.”

“i dnt rlly get it. ys he care?”

“He’s got that Yoba altar in his house right? I know some believers don’t think its right.”

“aby said it was alrdy there tho”

“They could have gotten rid of it if they didn’t believe. They’re having financial trouble and that huge altar would probably bring in a lot of money. Either way, it’s kind of shitty of Pierre to act like that.”

“def. guess hell be hppy when u and aby get tghthr tho lol.”

“Yeah, I guess this kind of puts his complaints about how he dresses in a new light, huh? He’s gonna be pretty disappointed though. I don’t really see me and Abby ending up together.”

“y? u lik her rite?”

“Of course I like her, Sam. She’s our friend.”

“u no wut i mean dud”

Yes, of course Sebastian did. Honestly, he did have a little crush on Abigail at one point, but… as time went on, he realized that she wasn’t exactly what he wanted. Not in a romantic sense anyway. He needed to be a bit careful how he explained that to Sam, though.

“I do. Abigail’s a good friend. I don’t think she’s really my type though.”

“lol u want a zuzu girl?”

“No, Sam. I’m not sure I know exactly what I want, but me and Abigail are better as friends. What about you?”

“?”

“Most of the town thinks you’re going to end up with Penny, even if you say you’re not that close to her. You’re also friends with Abby, right?”

“lol dud no. thts lik d8ing my sister”

“Which one?”

“both?”

“So you don’t have your eye on anyone right now either?”

“i dnno man maybe? im jus makin it up as i go u no?”

Deciding it might be time to change the topic rather than press any further, Sebastian responded with, “I guess I understand that. I don’t exactly know what I’m doing either. By the way, your birthday is on Wednesday, right? Are you working again this year?”

“prbly. i go back mon ☹” 

“That sucks. Do you have any plans after work?”

“dinner w/ fam y? u wanna do somethin?”

Sebastian paused before responding. Though he would normally be quick to say that, yes, obviously he wanted to see his friend that day, one thing made him a tiny bit unsure. Going over to the radio stand near the door, he opened up the drawer and pulled out a cassette in a plastic case. It had an insert that, on the outside-facing part, had some art of a night sky with a diesel train making its way to a brightly lit city on a dark lake that reflected the stars above. At the top of the image, in white lettering, it read “Xenon Chip 3.0.” It was by no means the best use of his money, but after seeing how happy Sam was with the band, Sebastian had gotten to work on putting recordings of their music into the right formats, cleaning up the audio, and sending them to one of the few companies that still made cassettes. That wasn’t even the only part of the gift. This was one of two cassettes. The other he had mailed off to a guy in Zuzu who was known for promoting independent bands. Apparently he owned an outdoor stage somewhere in the city, where he regularly scheduled bands to play for a low price if he happened to be fond of them. It was a long shot, but… well, he imagined it would make Sam happy to at least have that opportunity. 

Quite happy, in fact.

That was the issue, though, wasn’t it? The gift, Sebastian worried, was a bit too personal. Normally, he wouldn’t have spared it a second thought, but with what happened in the mines and the news about Solar and Alex… was it possible his gift might be taken as something more than friendly? He did still have time to find something else, but there was the possibility that the guy in Zuzu would actually want them to play in the city. If that was the case, did he just play it off as a decision he made on his own for the band without any input from the others? That would likely sour things just as much, if not more. A thoughtful gift would turn into a thoughtless act.

No, he was probably stuck with this gift, but he could at least try to play it off as a means of benefiting the band as a whole. After all, it was a pretty well-known fact that he wanted to move. If he showed he was taking the band… perhaps a tiny bit more seriously than he really was, it could look like he was looking for a way to get out to the city. That would, of course, make him look selfish as well. Perhaps if he just avoided seeing Sam for at least one extra day, it would give him more time to come up with something to gift the guy.

He was brought out of his thoughts by another guitar riff.

“seb?” the message from Sam read.

Well, he could make the decision of how to handle this later. He could at least say that he didn’t particularly want to avoid Sam, so he texted back, “Yeah. I was gonna say pizza, but since you’re eating with your family, why don’t we do something else? Want me to swing by after you’ve eaten?”

To Sebastian’s shock, Sam responded, “nah.” This was followed up with “ill go c u if thats ok. prbly gona b tired of bing home by then”

“Sure. Want me to get us a movie or something?”

“nah but ill still take that 🍕 if u want”

Sebastian couldn’t help but let out a short laugh. “Didn’t you say you were going to eat with your family?”

“ya but ill b hungry at nite lol”

“Fine. I’ll pick up some pizza and see if I can get something for us to watch. Just text me before you head over, okay?”

“k. c u then”

Sebastian put his phone away and turned his attention back to his work. Concerns about Sam’s gift remained in his mind, but… well, he needed the money, and failing to deliver could make it difficult to find work in the future. Besides, if he had a little extra money, it made solving his problems a bit easier. Especially if things turned out not being as okay at home as they initially seemed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're all staying safe out there! Remember that social distancing and proper hand washing keeps us all safe.
> 
> For those reading this in the future: This chapter was posted during the Coronavirus epidemic of 2020. Please continue to wash your hands even if the virus has been dealt with.


	12. Summer 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On Sam's birthday, he visits Sebastian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! This fic hasn't been abandoned. Things have just been rather difficult lately between the Master's program and this pandemic. I hope you're all staying safe.

The next few days were rather uneventful. Sam and Sebastian both had work to do. Abby had plenty of written assignments to keep her busy. They did text, of course, but there just wasn’t much to talk about. None of them were exactly dying to discuss the mine any further, and the only other interesting event lately was what had happened at the saloon, a topic they had more-or-less covered right after it happened.

Eventually, Sam’s birthday rolled around. The blonde went to work, put on his headphones, and let the hours just fly by while he went through the motions of stocking shelves and cleaning floors. During his break, he was gifted a “Joja Life Milestone Certificate” that wished him a “Joja-tastic Birthday/Wedding/Baby Shower,” Morris apparently not bothering to circle the proper life event. It entitled him to one free Glorpee, but that was hardly a real gift. After all, the recent safety recalls had left the machine sitting in the back room, just out of sight of the cameras, meaning that he and Shane could have their fill of the cold slop whenever they wanted. 

Speaking of Shane, the older man hadn’t been very talkative lately. Not that he ever was, but the two of them would, on occasion, have a few laughs or help one another swipe some nearly-expired frozen food when their boss wasn’t looking. Of course, Sam chalked it up to Shane still being in a bad mood about having to pick up the slack after the mine incident, so it wasn’t like it was going to keep him up at night that they weren’t talking.

Once Sam got out of work, he went straight home. After greeting his parents and little brother, he got changed, hung around his room a bit, then joined his family at the dinner table. Things went pretty well. Vincent excitedly sung him happy birthday, they all talked about how their day went, Sam got to enjoy some of Jodi’s locally-famous fish casserole, and, at the end, they shared in some rich, fudgy chocolate cake! It was a pretty nice time.

After dinner, Sam helped his mother clean up a bit while Kent put Vincent to bed. While she started to wash the dishes, he cut a few pieces of the frankly too-big cake (Why had it become tradition to make these things three-tier anyway?), putting them in some plastic containers. Naturally, this caught Jodi’s attention. 

“Oh… are you saving some pieces for your friends, sweetie?”

“Yeah,” Sam responded without looking over, still a bit busy preparing the cake for transport. “I’m gonna hang out with Seb tonight! I thought I’d take some extra slices in case anyone else wants some.” He motioned to a container with a single slice that sat apart from the others. “That one’s for Abby! She’d kill me if I didn’t save her some for Friday!” 

Jodi silently considered her son for a few seconds before giving him a little smile. “Well, it’s very nice of you, Sam. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. Why don’t you drop off Abigail’s piece on the way to see Sebastian? Oh! You should save a slice for Penny too!”

Sam shook his head. “I’m gonna see Abby Friday anyway. Besides, it sounds like things with Pierre have been kinda weird. I don’t want to get stuck there if they’re having drama. I’ll definitely save a slice for Penny, though!”

“Oh, that’s right,” Jodi said with a frown. “I’m sure things have been a little difficult at the general store these days. When Caroline told me what happened, I was shocked to hear it! I don’t see why Pierre needed to stick his nose in other people’s business. Maybe I could understand if it was… well, he shouldn’t have gotten involved, anyway.” 

“Yeah. I don’t get why he got so mad about Solar and Alex. Whatever, though. I just feel bad for Abby and her mom.”

“Yes… Maybe I’ll save a little slice for Caroline too. I’m sure it’ll help her mood. You have fun with Sebastian, sweetie. Tell Robin hello for me, will you?”

“Sure! See you tomorrow, mom!”

With that and a quick kiss on the cheek, Sam took one of the plastic containers to his room, tossed it into a backpack with a change of clothes, and left the house. He shot Sebastian a quick text to let him know he was on his way, then plugged in his headphones for the long walk to the mountain cabin.

When Sam arrived, Sebastian was waiting outside the house, leaning up against the garage door as he smoked a cigarette. He looked a bit more… absent than normal, his eyes staring off into the distance, not having even noticed Sam yet. The blonde, however, chose to think it was just because his best friend had been working so much lately. When he waved, at least, Seb finally seemed to notice him and waved back.

“Hey,” Sam said, giving his friend a wide grin.

The sight of Sam forced Sebastian to give a small, brief smile in return. “Hey. Happy birthday.”

“Thanks. Mind if we go inside? I’ve got cake in my bag.”

Sebastian quietly nodded, tossing his cigarette to the ground and stomping it out. The two went inside together, where they found the rest of Sebastian’s family in the middle of a conversation.

“…so, I say, ‘Wow, that was really nice, Red! You must really like my Sebby, huh?’ and he says ‘He’s nice. A little too bony for me though.’ I say, ‘Well, maybe he could stand to eat a little more,’ and he says ‘Oh, that too, I guess.’ I still have no idea what that meant!” Robin told the other two, laughing as she finished up the story, only to turn as she noticed the door opening. “Oh, Sam! Happy birthday! It’s good to see you!”

“Thanks, Robin! I…” he began to say, only to be cut off by Sebastian.

“Mom, Sam’s got cake in his backpack that needs to go in the fridge,” the black-haired boy said, grabbing his friend by the arm and dragging him away.

“Oh… uh, yeah! We better do that!” Sam said, waving as he was pulled to the other room. “And mom says hey!”

Soon, they were down the hall, inside the rather small kitchen. Sam began to take the containers of somewhat-crumbled cake out of his bag, putting them in the fridge, while Sebastian pulled out his phone and started to text someone. 

“Man,” Sam said, “you were in more of a hurry than usual to get away from them. Something happen?”

“No, I just didn’t wanna get pulled into what they’re talking about.”

“Something about Red, right? What, did he hit on you?”

“Definitely not. Apparently, he offered to pay my bill at the clinic. I didn’t know farmers had so much money to throw around. He was a little late, though. Mom used some of the extra cash she’s got from digging all those ponds to cover it.”

“Wow,” Sam responded, closing the refrigerator and rubbing at the back of his head a bit. “You’re pretty lucky, Seb! I haven’t gotten the bill yet, but it’s probably gonna take the rest of my life to pay it off!”

“That sucks. Maybe one of the farmers will offer to pay it off for you though.”

“Yeah? That’d be pretty cool! Think I can talk them into giving me a little money to jumpstart the band too?”

This got a short laugh from Sebastian, who then shook his head. “I wouldn’t push it.”

Sam pulled out one of the chairs at the table, taking a seat and leaning back in it a bit while looking up at the ceiling. “Hey… how much do you think we’d need to really get started?”

For the next few seconds, Sebastian was quiet. He shifted uncomfortably as he considered the question, before finally shrugging. “I don’t know. It’s not really a problem of just having money, right? We have our instruments, a band name, and a couple songs already. That doesn’t help book venues though. Not to mention we’ve also got to keep up with work in the meantime.”

“Yeah...” Sam replied, frowning at the thought of just how difficult it would really be. “It’d be cool though. I really think our music’s good! We could probably strike it big if we could land a show somewhere like Zuzu.”

Again, Sebastian went silent. This time, however, it didn’t seem to be to mull over a response. Sam could tell. After all, Seb had a pretty big giveaway. When he just wasn’t going to continue the conversation, he avoided eye contact, instead just focusing on something else. In this case, that meant tapping away quietly at his phone.

“Anyway,” Sam said, breaking the silence, “do you want to hang in your room? Maybe we can play Solarian Chronicles?”

“Sure,” Sebastian responded without lifting his gaze from his phone. “I’m just finishing ordering us a pizza.”

“Huh? Does Gus deliver now?”

“We live in a tiny town, Sam. I just texted Emily asking if there was any way she could get it out to us. Business is a little slow tonight, so she said yes.”

“Oh. Cool.”

The two descended the stairs into the basement, Sebastian shutting and locking the door behind them. Though they took their usual places at the game table, Sebastian didn’t move to grab the game master’s screen, while Sam just took one of the rule books from the nearby stack, starting to look over the illustrations of truly monstrous creatures.

“So, since monsters are definitely real, you think any of the stuff in here exists?”

“Probably not,” Sebastian replied, his phone now put away. Before he could think better of it, he added, “I’m not gonna say we should go on any adventures to find out, though.”

Silence.

Eventually, Sam put down the book and gave a rather awkward laugh. “Yeah… It’s probably better to never find out, right?”

Sebastian looked away as he replied, “Sorry. That probably sounded harsher than I meant for it to.”

“No, it’s cool, man. I know you were pretty worried about how things would turn out and we… kinda got lucky to make it out, right? I can’t believe I showed up with a guitar…”

“You brought those cherry bombs too, though. Those monsters would have killed us if you hadn’t.”

“I guess so,” Sam said. There was another long silence between them before Sam added, “Hey, if… you need to talk ab-” 

He couldn’t finish that before Sebastian said, “How’s Joja going? Did Morris give you any shit about what happened?”

“Huh? Oh. Uh… No, he didn’t! Weird, right? He didn’t even bring it up. All I got was a...” Suddenly his eyes went wide. “Shit.”

“Sam? Something wrong?”

The blonde suddenly stood up, hands going to search his pockets. “What did I…” Finally, he found what he was looking for in an inner pocket of his jacket. He pulled out a blue, unopened envelope that had apparently been folded with no care for the contents. Based on how faded and tattered it looked, it must have also been washed along with the jacket. “…here it is!”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at this. “Here what is, Sam? Did Morris give you that?”

“Yeah! Uh… well, Shane did. Morris told him to do it. I was gonna open it before I went in to work, but I totally forgot. Hope it wasn’t anything important…” 

With a nervous look on his face, Sam opened up the envelope and pulled out the faded, slightly-torn, obviously-bent card inside. It had the Joja logo on the front, along with the words “Sorry To Hear About Your Accident!”

“What’s it say?”

“Let’s find out,” Sam replied, opening it up to read its fortunately still-legible contents. “It says, ‘We heard through our Joja Community Partners that you recently had an accident which poses no liability to Joja Corporation! We would like to extend our condolences! In accordance with Joja Corporation’s No Associate Left Behind program, we have moved your performance review to Fall 3 in order to give you more time to recover from your tragedy!’ Ugh…”

“Well, that’s a good thing, right?”

“I guess, except that I didn’t have a performance review scheduled before this… at least not one that I knew about.”

“Oh. That sucks, then. Sorry.”

Sam shrugged, tossing the card and envelope aside. “Whatever. Let’s just play a little, alright? If they fire me, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

So, the two of them pulled out their character sheets, set up the grid, the figures, the GM screen, and got into the game. Whatever awkwardness had been there early on in the night faded over the next hour or so, the game taking up too much of their attention to dwell on such things. It was only after they had delved deep into the Bilemarsh Caverns and slain the trio of witches that ruled over the Moonlight Mountains that they were interrupted by a text from Emily. Sebastian, of course, reacted by grabbing his wallet and disappearing upstairs, only to come back a minute or two later with a fresh pizza in a plain cardboard box that had written on it “Happy Birthday Sam!!! -Gus & Emily.” 

After Seb set the box on the table, Sam went and opened it up to see the half-cheese, half-supreme pizza inside. Taking a slice from the latter half, he said, “Looks good! I love mom’s casserole and everything, but nothing beats the pizza at the saloon, right?”

“Sure.” Sebastian shrugged. “Gus makes good pizza. They’ve got some pretty nice pizza restaurants in Zuzu too, though.”

“Yeah? You know a good place?”

Taking a slice of cheese pizza for himself, Sebastian nodded. “There’s this place called Pippin’s Pizzeria on the east edge of the city. Last year, I drove out to the city after Deme-” He frowned, cutting himself off, then starting up again. “Well, I drove out to the city. I decided to go to this comic book shop to see if I could find a copy of Cave Saga VI. I got a little hungry after and this place was next door. They’ve got this pizza with a few different kinds of cheese, they do stuffed crust… it’s just a bunch of stuff we don’t have out here. When I went, I think they even had a special on some kind of curry pizza.”

“Huh. Maybe I should go to Zuzu more often,” Sam replied. He went quiet for a moment, then let out a short laugh as he tapped on the lid of the pizza box. “I bet whoever Pippin is, he won’t wish us happy birthday on the boxes though!”

This managed to get a little laugh out of Sebastian as well. “Probably not. It’s part of living in a small town. I didn’t even mention it was your birthday to Emily.”

“Really? I guess I’ve gotta thank them for remembering. Anyway, even if Zuzu pizza is better, Gus’s pizza is still a pretty great birthday gift!”

Though Sam laughed when he made that comment, Sebastian went silent, a frown coming to his face as he glanced off to another part of the room, considering what he should do.

After a little time passed, Sebastian heard “Seb? You okay?”

Even after the question, Sebastian didn’t immediately reply. He felt like, by looking right at the place he was storing the cassette after Sam made a comment about a birthday gift, he may have given himself away. On the other hand, Sam might not have picked up that detail. Of course, he still hadn’t found a solution to the bigger issue. If he didn’t give Sam the cassette and, by chance, the person to whom he had sent a copy did choose to promote them (as unlikely as that was), what would he even say to Sam about it later?

“Hey, what’s up?” 

Now Sebastian actually snapped out of his thoughts, looking back over at Sam, who had set his slice of pizza down and was staring with a rather worried expression.

“Nothing,” Sebastian answered. “It’s not that anything’s wrong. I was just thinking that I… I did get you something other than pizza.”

“You did? Man… you didn’t have to do that. I know you’ve been working your ass off lately!”

Sebastian stood up, giving Sam another shrug as he went to the stand the radio was on and pulled open the drawer. “Sorry if this is too personal or… maybe not personal enough, since it has to do with all three of us. I wasn’t sure if I was even gonna give it to you, but…” He didn’t really finish that thought, instead just pulling out that plastic box containing the cassette and holding it out for Sam to see.

Sam looked shocked when he first saw it. His eyes were wide, his mouth hung slightly open, and he was briefly speechless. Of course… that left room for more doubt in Sebastian’s mind.

“I didn’t wrap it or anything,” Sebastian said. “Sorry if it’s… I don’t know…”

Having recovered from the initial surprise, Sam took the box, looking it over. “Seb… is this what I think it is?”

“Probably?” Sebastian shifted uncomfortably. “There’s a company that makes really small runs for bands like ours. I just sent them digital files of our music and… had it made.”

Sam set the gift down, pulling Sebastian into a far-too-tight hug, slightly crushing his poor friend. “Sebastian… I love it! This is really great! The pizza’s nice and all, but… I never even imagined I’d get this kind of gift!” 

Sebastian pushed Sam back a bit to break his friend’s hold, taking in a gasp of air afterwards before offering the blonde a little smile. “Sure. There’s… something else, though.”

“Huh? Seb, you…”

Without letting Sam finish, Sebastian continued, “I made two copies. The other went to a promoter in Zuzu. I don’t wanna get your hopes or anything, but… it seemed like something you should know.”

Sam took Sebastian’s hand, his eyes looking kind of… shiny as he stared at his best friend. “Woah! Seb… if he likes our music, maybe we can really take off! Me and you, on tour together!”

“And Abby,” Sebastian corrected.

“Y-yeah! And Abby,” Sam agreed, though he was left rather red in the face after that little slip up.

A few seconds of silence passed before Sebastian said, “Sam… you’re still holding my hand.”

Sam only turned a deeper red at the observation. “Oh… yeah. Um… You know… uh… I really joke around a lot, but… you really are my best friend. You know?”

“I know, Sam. You’re my best friend too.”

More silence passed between them.

“Sam, you’re still…”

Finally, the blonde let go of Sebastian and took a step back before rubbing at the back of his head. “Sorry! It’s just kind of exciting.”

Sebastian nodded, though his eyes were now cast downward. “Yeah. I guess it is,” he said as he sat back down. “Even if we can just get regular shows in Zuzu, it’d be a good way of getting out of Pelican Town and into the city.”

“Definitely! If it worked out, I could quit Joja, we could get an apartment in the city…”

“We? You mean…”

Sam tilted his head a bit, giving Sebastian a confused look. “Yeah? You’re not gonna ride out to the city every time we have a show, right? I thought you wanted to leave Pelican Town?”

“I do! I just didn’t expect that…” Sebastian just trailed off, not lifting his gaze.

“I mean, a three-bedroom would probably be way to expensive when we’re just getting started! We probably would have to ride to the city for every show after all! At least until we hit it big!”

“A three…? Oh.” Sebastian finally looked up at Sam, his face flushed. “Yeah. Of course, a bedroom for you, one for me, and one for Abby.”

“Y-yeah. How else would we do it? You and Abby aren’t dating, right?”

“Right. How else?”

“Umm… well, I guess to save money, me and you could bunk together, since we’re both guys, right?”

“Yeah. We are.”

Another silence. Neither was entirely sure how long it lasted. 

It was Sam who finally spoke up. “Seb… like I said, you’re my best friend, so if you need to talk about anything…”

Unfortunately, Sebastian was not exactly keen on that idea, instead picking up the pizza box, closing it, and walking towards the door. “If we’re not gonna eat anymore, I should probably throw this in the fridge. You like it better the next day anyway, right?”

“What? Um… sure, yeah. But, I...” was all Sam managed to get out before Sebastian disappeared upstairs.

A minute passed.

Then five.

Then ten.

Sam knew Sebastian could get a bit… in his own head. Sometimes he just needed a little time to cool down, but… well, he didn’t have a room to lock himself in while Sam was over, he definitely wasn’t going to be talking it over with his family, the saloon was too far and too full of people, the beach was even further, and Abby was busy at the general store. Together, those factors created a rather dangerous situation where Sam just didn’t know where his best friend may have run off to. He did try texting Sebastian just in case, but quickly found that the black-haired boy had left his phone in the room. Clearly, he would have to go looking for him.

Grabbing his pack, Sam climbed up the stairs and went into the kitchen, where he found Maru sitting at the table, typing on her phone. She glanced up at him as he approached.

“Hey Sam,” she said. “Is everything okay? Sebastian just shoved a pizza box in the fridge and ran out the front door! I hope you two didn’t fight?”

“No, I don’t think we did, it’s just kinda… weird. Do you know which way he went?”

“Sorry, but I have no idea. He looked upset, but it didn’t seem like following him would be a good idea. He hardly talks to me as it is, so I didn’t imagine I’d be of much help.”

“Alright. I’ll just go look for him.” Sam opened up the fridge, pulling out one of the containers of cake he’d brought along. “Do you think Robin will mind if I take some forks?”

Maru shook her head. “Go ahead. It’s the third drawer from the left.”

Sam nodded as he grabbed those as well, wrapping them in a paper napkin and tossing them in his pack along with the food. “Thanks. I’ll be back in a little while with him.”

With that, Sam ran out the front door himself, intent on finding Sebastian.

Now, unfortunately for Sam, Sebastian was truly hard to track down. He wasn’t by the lakeside or by the river. He wasn’t at the old, abandoned community center or at the railroad tracks. The bathhouse was completely empty. Though Sam dreaded even checking there, he wasn’t at the mine. At least he felt a little relief when he saw that the lift was still at the top floor. He pushed down any thoughts that Sebastian could have gone down without it. He texted Abby, who said she hadn’t seen him. Honestly, Sam doubted he went into town anyway. After more than an hour of searching, Sam came to the conclusion that there was probably only one direction Sebastian could have gone in.

So, late at night on his birthday, Sam made his way down the mountain path towards the Whitefeather Farm.

The farm, fortunately enough, was fairly well-lit thanks to some iron lampposts. With cobblestone footpaths, it was also easy to navigate. Not that Sam had to go very far. He found Sebastian smoking while leaning up against a hardwood fence and staring at a field in front of two barns, where animals presumably roamed during the daytime. From how puffy his eyes looked, it was clear he had been crying. It was likely best not to draw attention to that, though.

Sam took up a spot next to Sebastian, leaning against the fence himself. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

Another stretch of silence passed between them, though Sam found this one somewhat less awkward. It felt more comfortable, since Sebastian didn’t move away or anything. Hopefully he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

“So,” Sam said, breaking the silence, “the farm, huh?”

Without looking at him, Sebastian just answered, “Yeah.”

“There’s probably a lot to see here during the day, right?”

“Probably.”

Well, that tactic didn’t seem to be working. Time to be a little more direct.

Sam let out a little sigh. “Look… maybe I shouldn’t have said anyth-”

Sebastian tossed his cigarette to the ground, stomping it out. “Why aren’t you mad at me, Sam?”

“Wait, what? Why would I be…”

“I kissed you, Sam. We were in a cave. We were cold, naked, dying, and alone, and I kissed you.”

“Seb… I get it, I…”

“And I followed it up by giving you a way-too-personal gift! Then I ran off to smoke by myself on your birthday.”

“I don’t think it was way-too…”

“Things have been awkward all night, Sam! Look, you don’t have to let me down easy. If I fucked up our friendship in the mines, just tell me, alright?”

Sam stood there for several seconds, wide-eyed, shocked, and trying to process what was going on. 

Sebastian couldn’t maintain eye contact any longer. He turned back towards the field, staring out into the distance. “How can you keep being friends with me? I don’t get it. Especially in a town like this.”

Suddenly, Sebastian felt his friend’s arms wrapping around him from behind and pulling him away from the fence. Though he tried to squirm out of it, Sam didn’t let go at first.

“Seb… I told you earlier, you’re my best friend! Man… you really think I’m gonna stop being friends with you because of dumb stuff like that? You got me the best gift I’ve ever gotten! Why am I gonna be mad about that? And the mines… uh…” Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately for Sam, being behind Sebastian kept the other boy from being able to see his blush. “…I get it. We thought we were gonna die! I could’ve ended up kissing you too! It’s no big deal! Dad’s always telling me how, when things are life or death, people lose control, you know? I don’t care about that kind of thing!”

When Sebastian didn’t respond, Sam continued, “So… um… you don’t need to feel bad about it, alright? Even if… umm…” He struggled for a moment, not sure how to broach the subject he wanted to bring up or even whether to do so or not.

Sebastian managed to slip out of Sam’s grasp as the blonde distracted himself thinking about this. “Even if what, Sam?”

“Even if… I mean, I know this probably isn’t what was up, but even if you didn’t do it just because it was a bad situation… if you meant it, you can tell me! I’m not gonna got mad or anything! I’m just… glad you’re okay. Whatever’s up, we can just figure it out and keep being friends!”

Friends. Not exactly what Sebastian’s best-case scenario was, but… Sam wasn’t the best liar. It was, at the very least, comforting to know the blonde wasn’t planning to completely abandon him if he came out. Even so, what was the point of making things more awkward still when it sounded like Sam just… wasn’t into him that way?

“Sure. Thanks, Sam. I’m glad you’re not mad about it.”

“No way, man!” Sam said, now giving Sebastian a toothy smile. “Trust me, I’m never gonna get mad about this kinda stuff! Uh… anyway, want some cake? It’s been sitting in my pack for like… I dunno, more than an hour, but it’s probably still good.”

“Yeah. Alright,” Sebastian responded, taking a seat on the grass by the cobblestone path, with his back leaning up against the fence. He took an offered fork and the two quietly ate a mass of crumbs and frosting that, he assumed, had once been a very nice birthday cake.


	13. Summer 18, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abigail goes on a solo adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit shorter. Things are still a bit busy these days, but I am happy to be able to get these out. Thank you all for your continued support!

Abigail wasn’t used to being up so early. Sure, she usually didn’t get up as late as Sam or Sebastian, but it was rare that she get up as early as, say, the residents of the nearby farm. After all, there wasn’t much to do in town at six in the morning.

Even so, the purple-haired girl had forced herself to get out of bed, get dressed, and leave the house. Her father claimed he still needed Abigail and Caroline to help out around the shop for a few more days. Honestly, she was fairly sure he was just playing up his injuries at this point, but she felt a little bad about just leaving her mother to deal with the shop (and with Pierre) without her help. Unfortunately, studying and helping out left little time or energy for hanging around the cemetery or exploring the area around town. To make a little time for herself, she’d decided to set an early alarm.

In retrospect, she wasn’t sure it was the best idea, really. She was likely to just be tired earlier by the end of the day. It was too late to go back now, though. She was already on her way to the woods! Well… she was officially caught up with her class work anyway, so hopefully it wouldn’t be so bad.

After the surprisingly long walk out of town, she began to wander the Cindersnap Forest. Though the woods held a certain sense of mystery, they were never quite as interesting as she might have liked. The part that was safe to explore had footpaths, bridges, and even a sewer drain that all worked together to remind her that she wasn’t that far away from town. The deeper part of the woods were more interesting, but it was easy to get lost once one went past the statue of Old Master Cannoli. Plus, it was full of slimes. Adventurous as she might be, she wasn’t quite up to dealing with monsters again so soon after the incident in the mines. 

Despite all this, she still considered it worth exploring. She had once run into a traveling merchant who sold her some spicy eel, thus introducing her to one of her favorite foods. Besides, if she wanted to know anything about that old man, she might as well start in the forest he called home.

After arriving near the tower, Abigail ducked behind a bush and looked the structure over. Honestly, it looked like the kind of place a wizard straight out of Solarian Chronicles would live, with its tall stone exterior and the vines growing up its sides. The easiest approach would be to go right up and knock at the door, but if this guy wanted company, he’d probably spend more time in town. One of the structure’s several windows was close enough to the ground that she could peek inside and even climb in, but she didn’t know what kind of guy this was. It could be dangerous Not to mention that, even if the coast was clear on the ground floor, she couldn’t know if he wasn’t just on one of the upper floors. It was actually kind of exciting, crouching there as she tried to figure out how to snoop on this mysterious loner.

Abigail was interrupted from her planning, however, when another person ran by, not even noticing her. It was one of the farmhands, Violet. Dressed in brown overalls with a tan shirt underneath, she had a rather serious look on her face as she walked right up to the tower. A moment later, the door swung open, letting her inside.

Well. Now Abigail was really interested. She had never heard about Red or his farmhands having anything to do with the tower-dwelling hermit. Curious, she quickly made her way over to the low window, where she could get a peek at what was going on inside. It seemed Violet and the old man were standing over a book, looking over its pages. Getting juuust a bit closer to the window, Abby could make out what they were discussing.

“…yes, it is well within my power,” the hermit said. “Creating the actual structure will be simple enough. I will need only a few bars of iridium for the elements to shape. The reagents for the enchantment, however, are another matter entirely. A handful of clams and coral pieces will be simple enough to gather, but there are far more… specialized ingredients I will need as well. I doubt that a mundane will be able to access the markets where they are sold. I am willing to get them myself, but you may find that they are… prohibitively expensive for a structure meant only to save you a meager amount of time each day.”

Elements? Enchantments? Was this guy for real? He couldn’t actually mean he was performing magic in that tower, could he? It wasn’t that Abigail didn’t believe in it, but… wouldn’t the townspeople be gossiping about it if they had a wizard on the edge of their little community?

“It’s fine,” Violet responded. “It’s a pain having to run there and back just to pick up the day’s haul, unload it on that crusty old fisherman, and get back to working on the farm. The way I see it, this is sort of like automation. Any time that we don’t waste we can instead use on something worthwhile.”

“Ah, yes. I can understand the desire. I have known many a sorcerer who has sought freedom from menial tasks by calling upon the power of the elements. It does not always go as planned. Some elements are happy to do some tasks, but others feel put upon. The lazy mystic rarely takes the time to understand the differences between various kinds of spirit. Take, for instance, the Junimos…”

“Uh-huh. That’s really great, but if I’m gonna get you that iridium so you can do your thing, I really should get going. You can tell me about the elements or whatever next time, okay?”

The old man huffed. “Patience! You may yet learn something useful! As I was saying, the Junimos actually enjoy dealing with plant life. For a… relatively modest sacrifice – that is, relative to what other spirits would demand from you – you may call upon them to aid you at your farm.”

Whatever Violet responded with, Abigail didn’t hear it clearly. Her phone was, after all, going off rather loudly. That was something of a problem, not just because it didn’t let her keep listening to the conversation, but also because she saw the old-man-who-was-potentially-a-wizard (or “potential-wizard” as she was going to think of him from now on) turn his head towards the window.

“Shit!” she exclaimed, fumbling to grab her phone and silence it as she ran off into the woods, not really paying attention to where she was going. She just kept running for several minutes, not wanting the potential-wizard to know who was spying on him and certainly not wanting the (in her mind) kind-of-cute farmhand to know either. By the time she stopped to catch her breath, she realized she was standing near the least appealing part of the forest. It was that awful ledge that had plenty of garbage down below and a sewer pipe draining sludge into the sea. 

Checking her phone, she saw it was a call from Sebastian. Going down the stairs to hide out by the foul-smelling pipe (just in case the pair she had been spying on actually did pursue her), she was about to call him back… when she noticed that the grate over the pipe had been left open. 

Going into the sewers of all places was a terrible idea. She had just had a pretty bad experience with following her terrible ideas and knew that the best thing to do would just be to call Sebastian, see what he needed, and maybe head back into town.

Unfortunately, Sebastian was just going to have to wait.

Pushing the grate open, Abigail took a few steps inside, taking care to avoid having to go ankle-deep in sewage. What she found inside was… strange. The sewers were actually spacious and easy to navigate, though a foul fog made it difficult to see. The stone flooring, surprisingly, looked brand-new. The channel of sewage seemed like it had, after a certain point, been hidden under a layer of stone – likely there was a space under the flooring to still allow it to flow – simply to make it easier to walk around. After a few more steps, Abigail heard a voice call out.

“Red?” it said. “Is that you?”

Abigail gasped in surprise and turned towards the source of the voice, only to see a shadowy figure scurry past and disappear from view. Maybe… maybe it was time to get out of here. She knew the town’s sewer access ladder had to be around here somewhere! Soon enough, she reached a doorway that had electric lights on the wall to each side of it. In front, it had a new-looking gate between two metal posts. This had to be it.

Just when she was going to open it up and step through, she heard that voice again.

“Wait!”

Jumping back, Abigail pulled out the first thing she could grab – her keys – and held them in front of her like a weapon. Slowly stepping out from the fog and the shadows came… a void spirit.

“Please, don’t be alarmed,” it said. “I am sorry if the others have been hostile towards you, but I won’t attack you.”

Abigail didn’t move. Fighting monsters in the mines had been… quite the experience, but she really didn’t expect to come across a talking void spirit in the town’s sewers.

“If you go that way,” the spirit said, “you’ll end up in the bugs’ lair. They don’t like being disturbed. If you don’t have a real weapon, you might not make it back out.

It took Abby a few seconds of just standing there with her keys held out before she put them away and let out a breathe she didn’t realize she’d been holding. Finally, she nodded her head. “Thanks. I’m just trying to find the way back up into town.”

A bit of the shadowy, blob-like creature came up from its side. It must have been an arm, though the appendage couldn’t be differentiated easily from the rest of its body when it was just resting at its side. It pointed off into the fog. “There is a ladder against the wall that way. It’s hard to miss, since there are lights near it. Please be careful. I know humans don’t see as well in the dark as we do. Watch your step or you might fall!”

“Sure, thanks.”

Abby, eventually realizing she hadn’t moved, added, “What are you doing down here anyway?”

The spirit frowned and took a step back, looking as though it was about to flee. “I’ve been living down here. I sell exotic goods to the humans who do come down here, but there aren’t very many of them. Please… most of the townspeople would be afraid of me. I know that my friends in the mines are afraid of humans and sometimes attack, but I won’t hurt anyone…”

With a little smile, Abigail nodded at the creature. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. So… the farmer knows you’re down here?

“Yes. Human shops don’t sell some of the things I have down here, so they come to buy things. Red sometimes brings me gifts too.”

“Huh. I didn’t see him as the type to make friends with a void spirit, considering he hunts monsters in the mines. I guess I’ve never heard of what kind of monsters he hunts there though. Well, thanks for the help. No offense, but it really stinks down here. I’m heading back to town.”

With that, Abigail left the oddly cute shadowy blob to go find her way back home. By the time she actually got around to calling Sebastian back, more than an hour had passed from his initial call.

Sebastian himself was, at the time he received the call, alone again inside his room. Sam had left in the early morning after a fairly fun night of movies and games. Part of Sebastian was glad that he brought things at least somewhat out into the open. Things seemed… fine that night. Of course, he still had some lingering doubts.

Picking up his ringing phone without checking who it was, he answered, “Hello?”

“Hey Sebby,” he heard Abigail respond on the other line. 

“Oh hey. I was trying to call you earlier. What’s up?”

“You called at kind of a bad time. I almost got caught peeping in on that weird guy that lives in Cindersap Forest.”

“Shane? I didn’t know he was your type.”

“Ha. Ha. You know that isn’t who I mean, Seb. The old guy with the cowboy hat!”

“Oh yeah,” Sebastian said, a hint of sarcasm entering his voice. “That makes it a lot better. So why were you spying on him?”

“I caught him watching me a few days ago and he just… disappeared when he realized I had seen him. I thought maybe it was just a trick, but… today, I heard him and Violet talking about some kind of enchantment.” 

Sebastian was quiet. It wasn’t completely strange to think magic existed when there were monsters inside the mines. Certainly he had heard the stories of the Junimos that lived in Stardew Valley and of the people who could communicate with those spirits. Even so… 

“I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions, Abigail. Maybe Violet and the old guy believe in magic, but… that doesn’t really mean the guy’s really magical, right?”

“I guess that’s true. Maybe I’ll go to the library tomorrow and see if Gunther’s got any books about this. So, what were you calling me about earlier anyway?”

“Oh. It was… nothing important. You know I hung out with Sam last night, right? I just wanted to talk about that.”

“He didn’t mention anything, but I heard about it from my mom. Robin called her after you two went missing.”

“Yeah… we went back later. I just needed a little bit of time away from the house.” He let out a little huff. “We’re both adults. I don’t see why she needs to know where we go.”

“I think she was just worried, Sebastian. So was everything good?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Sebastian asked, sounding a bit more defensive than he meant to. “I mean, it was alright. Things just got a little weird…”

“Weird? What do you mean?”

“Just… there was some stuff about the mines…”

Abigail sighed. “Sebastian… I really don’t think Sam’s mad and he definitely doesn’t blame you for ending up in that frozen slimepit. He’s probably just happy that you both made it out!”

“That’s not really what it was.”

“Well, if it’s the whole naked thing, I hope you’re not upset at him for his stupid idea? You know Sam’s just really into movies, and I’m not sure he…”

“That’s not it either,” Sebastian interrupted. He was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Look, can we talk about this in person? I… didn’t tell you earlier because I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen, but… it’s probably going to come out eventually.”

This… left Abigail feeling a bit concerned. “Sure,” she responded, “Gimme like thirty minutes and I’ll leave. After my little adventure earlier, dad doesn’t want me helping around the store today anyway. I just wanna fish up this bath, rinse off in the shower, and get dressed. I’ll meet you by the mountain lake.”

“You’re going to finish bathing… and shower?”

Abigail suddenly hung up, but Sebastian got his answer when he was texted a photo. He was initially surprised that Abby would be bold enough to send him an image of herself in the bathtub… until he realized that the opaque tomato juice in which she was soaking did more than enough to preserve her modesty.


	14. Summer 18, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abigail has a chat with Sebastian.

Sebastian stood near the edge of the lake, smoking a cigarette and looking down at his reflection in the water. He could see the frown on his face, his paler-than-usual complexion, the slight tremble in his hand… It was obvious even to him that he was nervous. There was still time to come up with some bullshit excuse of course. Some fake reason for having asked Abby to meet him here. He didn’t have to come clean if he didn’t wa—

“Hey Sebby! Sorry that took so long. It’s harder than I thought to get tomato juice out of your hair.”

Well shit.

Sebastian tossed his cigarette to the ground, stomping it out before turning to face Abigail. “Don’t worry about it,” he responded. “Thanks for coming.”

“No problem.” She gave him a smile. “So what’s up?”

He turned back towards the water, staring at his own reflection again as though it would help him get through this conversation. When no help came, he let out a sigh. “In the mines, when I thought we were going to die anyway, I… I kissed Sam.”

“Oh,” Abigail said. Sebastian didn’t turn to see her expression, but he could hear the surprise in her voice. “Did you mean it?”

The boy took in a deep breath. “Yeah. I did.”

“Does he know you meant it?”

Sebastian turned around at this point, having mustered up just enough courage to actually look at Abby. To his surprise, she didn’t look even slightly mad, just… concerned. “Maybe.”

She raised an eyebrow at this and crossed her arms in front of her. “Maybe? Did you guys talk about it?”

“A little bit, yeah. On his birthday, I…” He didn’t quite finish that sentence, instead pulling out another cigarette, putting it between his lips, and lighting it. “We talked about it on his birthday. He wasn’t mad, but I didn’t tell him that I meant it.”

Now Abigail was the one letting out a sigh. “Sebby… Sam’s not going to figure it out without a little help.”

“Wouldn’t that be great?” Sebastian joked, though he ended up coughing awkwardly when he saw that Abigail remained unamused. “I think he might suspect it, though. He said that, even if I did mean it, we could still be friends.”

“And you didn’t use that chance to tell him?”

“No.” He shrugged. “I know Sam thinks we can still be friends, but it would make things pretty… different. Especially in a small town like this.”

Abigail hummed a bit. Quietly, she grabbed Sebastian by the wrist and pulled him beside her as she sat at the edge of the water. Naturally, he sat down next to her. 

When she didn’t respond, he added, “You know how things are here. Even your dad…”

“My dad’s a piece of shit,” she interrupted. “Don’t get me wrong. I love him and I love my mom, but it doesn’t change that he’s a piece of shit, especially after what happened in the saloon. Not everyone’s like him, though. You’ve got to know that, or you wouldn’t have come out to me.”

“Yeah. Well, we’ve been friends for a while. I feel like enough people probably are… like Pierre. Even if they weren’t, I don’t think Sam’s…” He shifted uncomfortable. “I don’t think Sam likes guys.”

“I don’t know. I think Clint’s on-board with my dad, but no one else looked like they cared. Even George…”

“George,” Sebastian cut in, “is Alex’s grandfather. He’s probably making an exception.”

Abigail frowned and arched a brow at the boy. “You don’t know that, Sebastian, and even if that’s true, I don’t really get what your plan is.”

“My plan?”

She nodded her head. “Yeah. Your plan. I know Pelican Town’s a drab, boring little town in the middle of nowhere. I know you want to live in Zuzu. Why are you so worried about what everyone here thinks?”

His mouth turned to a thin little line as he lowered his gaze. “I guess you just don’t get it.”

“Oh, I get it, Seb. I get it a lot more than you probably think.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Abigail looked away. “I… I like you a lot. I used to… I used to think we could maybe get together.” She laughed. “I even tried using my spirit board to figure out if you would ever ask me out.”

With his face beet red, Sebastian shrugged. “Y-yeah? Well… sorry I’m not… that way. I don’t see how this is anything like my situation, though.”

“Let me finish. Like I said, I used to think we could get together. I’ve… kind of figured out that we’re a lot better as friends. I’m not just into guys, Seb. Violet’s kind of cute, and I think she might be into me. I’d need to get to know her a little better, but I live with my dad. While I’m in school, I can’t exactly get the money together to move out. I don’t think Robin would ever be as bad as he is.”

“Too bad I don’t just live with her,” Sebastian replied. “I… kind of thought the two of us would date when I was younger too. I’m sorry it didn’t go that way, but… yeah. We probably are better as friends. I’m not sure what the chances are that Sam’s like us too, though.”

“The only way you’re going to find out is if you tell him the truth, Sebby.”

“Sure. I’ll do that and make things harder for him too. Like you said, I wanna go to Zuzu anyway. Why should I ruin things with Sam when, once I’ve saved up enough cash, I’ll be leaving? He’ll never have to see me or worry about the stupid shit I did after that.”

Abigail stood up, shaking her head. “You can be a real asshole sometimes, Sebastian.”

He didn’t answer her, just looking out at the water instead.

“It wouldn’t kill you to think a little bit about Sam, would it?” she continued.

Here, he actually stood up as well, anger clear on his features. “Think about Sam?” he snapped. “Thinking about Sam is why I’m having all these problems, Abby!”

“Yoba… sometimes I think you’re even denser than he is! Look, Sebastian, I want you to really think about this: what if Sam is actually into you?”

Sebastian suddenly froze up, his eyes going wide.

Abigail couldn’t help but give Sebastian a little smirk when she saw his expression. “Yeah. I guess you really are the dense one. Have you seriously not thought about what it would mean if Sam actually did like you? Jodi’s a pretty big believer in Yoba. She comes to the altar every week! Plus, his dad was a soldier who just got back from the war. You really think things are going to be easy for him right now if he is into you? He’s going to have to figure out what you even meant by kissing him while he’s dealing with Kent finally being back after all these years!”

“I…” Sebastian couldn’t maintain eye contact, his gaze shifting back down to the ground. “I don’t think he does. I’d like that, but… it’s way too good to be true.”

“Maybe it isn’t true,” she admitted, sighing when she saw him flinch at her words. “Maybe it is, though. If it turns out he does like you, you’re being kind of shitty. Honestly, even if he doesn’t and just suspects you like him, you’re still being kind of shitty. He’s probably got even less of a clue of what’s going on than you do right now. I don’t think he’d talk to me about it, since he’ll probably worry I’ll tell you. Who else does he have to talk to? Vincent’s a kid. He works with Shane, but that guy’s kind of an ass. I know he hangs out with Penny sometimes, but…” She just trailed off, hoping Sebastian understood.

Sebastian didn’t know what to respond. He… well, it wasn’t that he hadn’t considered it. It was more that he just couldn’t begin to believe Sam would ever accept his advances. Now that Abigail brought it up though… if Sam did like him, the poor blonde boy was probably getting pretty confused by the signals Sebastian had been sending him since that day in the mines. Plus, Abby was right. Sebastian felt alone rather often, but Sam was even more alone than he was on this issue.

“Yeah,” he said. “Fuck… I am kind of a shitty friend, huh?”

“Just talk to him, Sebby. Even if he turns you down, do you really think, after all these years, that Sam’s some secret bigot who’s going to get the town together and come to your house with pitchforks and torches?”

This actually got a laugh from Sebastian. “Yeah. Alright. Next Friday.”

“Next Friday?”

Sebastian took a puff of his cigarette as he nodded. “I want a little bit more time to figure out what I’m going to say, but I want to talk to him in person. Maybe I’ll take him to the beach while the rest of the town’s at the saloon. Unless you’re gonna be upset about missing our usual hang-out?”

“I’ll live,” she answered, giving him a little wink. Her mouth then stretched into a playful little grin as she asked, “Just in case things work out, want me to swipe some lube from the store?”

“…I think I have a little more work to do for a client today.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! The next semester is going to be rather busy according to the syllabus, but I'll continue trying to get these out to you! Hopefully I'll be able to get one more done before it starts.


	15. Summer 19 & 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam comes home on Friday night and gets ready to spend a little time with his mom on Saturday.

That Friday went by totally normally. Sam, Sebastian, and Abby hung out at the saloon. Sam, as usual, got completely crushed at the billiards table. None of them brought up the situation between the two boys. The conversation was mostly focused on Abigail’s adventure in the forest, though she avoided mention of the shadow creature under the town.

With his belly full of pizza and Joja Cola, Sam walked home feeling pretty happy that night, though he was surprised to find that his father hadn’t gone to the saloon. Since coming home from the war, Kent had made a habit of hanging around there on Fridays and Saturdays. Jodi seemed to think it was good for her husband to be around the other townspeople. Even so, Sam wasn’t too worried about it. Everyone got tired of their routine every once in a while.

It was only when he arrive back at home that he realized there was actually a reason Kent hadn’t been there that evening. His father was sitting in front of the house, having brought out two wooden chairs from inside. He had a half-empty six-pack of beer bottles next to him, with two bottles laying empty nearby and another open bottle in his hand. 

“Sam… I think we should talk,” Kent said, patting the chair next to him.

“Um… Sure, dad,” Sam said, scratching at the side of his head as he sat down in the offered seat. When his father didn’t immediately start talking, Sam added, “I was kinda surprised you weren’t at the sal—”

“Sam.” Kent’s voice was firm despite the beer he’d already had. “I spent a lot of time on the front lines. Every once in a while, we’d get some kid about your age who’d show up like he was some hero from an action movie and thinking he could go plant the flag in the Gotoro capital himself.” He took a sip from the amber bottle in his hand. “Most of them learned pretty quickly that it didn’t work like that. The rest never made it home.” 

“Dad… look, in the mines, I know I…”

“And,” Kent interrupted, “in the prison camp, we had a lot of hotheads too. There it was even worse. It wasn’t just the young ones anymore. You had some old vets who were already sick of the war. Who’d rather die trying to rush the guards than spend another month living on slimy soup and raw fish. I lost a lot of friends out there, Sam. The ones who didn’t get gunned down in the field fucked up their chances of getting back to the republic while they were in the camp. The few that came home when I did… they’re not the men I met at basic training.”

“Yeah… I guess I kinda know what that’s like.”

Kent briefly looked hurt, but he soon closed his eyes and took another drink from the bottle, tossing it aside once he emptied it of his contents. “I know I’m not the man I was back then either, Sam. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you were growing up. I was only supposed to serve a short tour before I got to come back for a while, but…” Rather than finish that thought, he just let out a tired sigh.

“No, I get it. I’m sorry you had to go through that awful shit, dad. I’m… uh… sorry about the mines too. It was… the slimes were really easy to fight, so we didn’t think…”

“No, you didn’t. I just… how could you go down there, Sam? Knowing there were monsters?” Kent reached down and grabbed another bottle, popping the cap off with ease and taking a sip. “Knowing you could get killed? That your friends could get killed?”

“We just… wanted to know if the stories were true! About the void spi—”

“You went down there hoping to find void spirits?!” Kent roared. “If you kids had found any, or if they had found you, we… we wouldn’t be talking about this right now! Did not one of you think about that?!”

“We…” Sam began, his voice trembling and eyes wide.

Kent didn’t allow him any excuses. “You showed up with a guitar, Sam! From what I’ve heard, it sounds like your friends at least had the foresight to bring weapons!”

“It was old and heavy, I thought I could…”

“Not to mention that you took one of my bombs from the war! Do you have any idea how dangerous those are?! Even hearing the farmers use them all the way out at the edge of town, I…” Kent suddenly went quiet, staring off into the distance for a few seconds, his eyes looking shinier than normal. He soon began to speak again, only to choke on his own words as a sob escaped him.

Sam… was unsure what to say. Over the course of his life, he’d barely seen his father. Work and school kept them apart most of the day in the city and Kent had enlisted in the army soon after moving to the valley. The blonde had certainly never seen his father like this. Reaching out, he put a hand on his father’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, dad. Really. It was stupid of us to go down there. Abby’s the only one who’s ever even used a sword.”

Kent brought his arm up, wiping away the newly-formed tears on his sleeve. “It was stupid. I don’t know how you made it back alive after that… but I’m glad you did. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost one of my boys after going through hell to get back to all of you.” Kent let out a short laugh and suddenly the tension was broken, a small smile coming to the man’s face as he added. “Would you believe that the first thing I hear about it out of Pierre is that the farmer found you and Sebastian huddled together naked in that slimepit?”

“Uh…” Sam’s face turned a bit red and he looked away, his hand quickly leaving his father’s shoulder. “Actually, I guess I kinda can after what happened in the saloon the other day. N-not that it was the same with me and Seb! I just…”

“No, I know,” Kent said, shaking his head. “You saw it’s how people keep warm in movies. Honestly, at least you tried, son. Even if, from what I hear, you were the one who set off the bomb that got you all trapped down there. What were you thinking? I don’t know why you’d need a bomb to fight a few slimes…”

“Huh? Wait… you don’t know?”

Kent raised an eyebrow at this. “What don’t I know?”

“It wasn’t slimes, dad! We were being chased by a bunch of these weird little dustballs that could break rocks in half! We didn’t think we were gonna get away, so… um…” 

Now his father leaned forward a bit, looking rather interested. “So you were fighting dust sprites. This was a last resort thing?”

“K-kind of. Sebastian was… he thought we were gonna die and just started to shut down, so… I kind of made Abby run with him down stairs, dumped out all the bombs I brought, lit one of them, and…”

“Stop,” Kent said, leaning back, his eyes closed. Sam went quiet and, a little bit later, Kent shook his head and began to speak again, “On second thought, I don’t think I want to imagine it all. You were really willing to risk blowing yourself up for your friends, huh son?”

“Well… I didn’t really think I was gonna blow up. I’m pretty fast when I wanna be!” He gave his dad a wide, toothy grin. “Seb’s the slow one! On land at least. He’s not a bad swimmer!”

Kent hummed to himself at his son’s response. “Say… if Abigail had Sebastian, why didn’t she end up stranded in that pit with the two of you?”

At the question, Sam’s blushed an almost unnatural shade of red. “Uh… w-well… when I was running down the stairs, I guess… I guess Seb started to feel a little better! He tried running back for me. That’s the only reason he ended up down there with me!”

“Hm. Sounds like Sebastian’s a pretty good friend. A lot of trained soldiers his age would have saved their own skin before risking it for a fallen comrade, honor code be damned.”

“Yeah! We’ve been best friends for a long time! I’d do the same for him. Um… and if it wasn’t for Abby finding Red and helping him track us down, we’d probably have died!” 

“You also would have died if you hadn’t done anything. Dust sprites look cute, but… a man’s skull isn’t exactly as hard as those rocks they break. It was still stupid of you to go down there at all and it was stupid to use all those explosives in an old abandoned mine, but… it’s still better than using them to kill a couple slimes. If you’re ever going to pull a stunt like this again – which you shouldn’t – talk to me or to someone at the adventurer’s guild first.” 

“Thanks, dad, but… you don’t need to worry about that. I think Abby still wants to be an adventurer, but me and Seb are done!”

Kent nodded as he grabbed another beer bottle and handed it to Sam. “Good. Honestly, that’s what I wanted to hear. Well… maybe not that Abigail didn’t learn her lesson, but at least I’ll be able to sleep at night if I know you’re not going to be sneaking out to that mine again. Now, your mom’s gonna want you to go with her to the Yoba altar tomorrow, so you should get some rest, but… why don’t I tell you about the time my platoon had to take cover in a cave during the monsoon season, only to end up ambushed by some of those dust sprites?”

…

“Sam? Sam, sweetie?”

Though Sam recognized the voice, he just rolled over and mumbled, “Five more minutes…” 

“Sam… Please get up, honey, I need you to get dressed to go to the Yoba service!”

Finally opening his eyes, Sam frowned as he looked over at the clock, then at his mother. “Mom, Pierre’s doesn’t even open for another hour.”

“Well, I thought we could have a little breakfast first! I made a recipe I saw on TV. I think you’ll like it!”

Sam stretched a bit as he nodded his head. “A new recipe? What is it?”

“Come out and see,” Jodi replied, a little smile on her face as she walked out of her son’s room.

Only a few minutes later, Sam came out of the room dressed in his usual outfit. His hair looked slightly less spiky than normal, the blonde not having had enough time to really style it the way he liked. After all, he didn’t want the food to get cold and it seemed like his mom wanted to leave soon. His eyes went wide and his jaw hung open a bit when he looked at the table and saw a mouthwatering stack of hot maple bars sitting on a platter.

Sam quickly took his place at the table, a tiny bit of drool starting to drip from the corner of his mouth. “Woah… these look just like the ones we got at Barone’s back in the city! 

“Oh, they’re just a little something that the Queen of Sauce made on her show! I did tweak the recipe for the glaze a little bit though to make them more like you remembered.”

Grabbing one of the bars, Sam quickly started to dig in to the sugary meal, saying, “Thanks, mom! This is my absolute favorite!” with his mouth still partially full of fried dough and maple glaze.

“I just thought it would be a nice treat. I know your dad had a little talk with you last night. He just worried about you.”

“Yeah. I know. It was really dumb of us to go down there. It’s not gonna happen again, though. Uh… where is dad, anyway?” 

Jodi rested her head in one hand as she sat at the table and watched her son eat. “He took Vince out for a little while. I thought it would be nice if it was just the two of us.”

“Um… alright?”

“I was just worried too, Sam. I’m glad you’re not planning to do something like that again. When I was your age, I was a little reckless too. It’s good that you matured from the experience.”

Sam gave his mother a confused look, but ended up shrugging as he grabbed another bar. “I thought me and Sebastian were done for. That would scare anyone away from the mine!”

His mother nodded her head at that. “How is Sebastian doing? Robin hasn’t said a lot about it since he got back home. She just says he’s been locked up in his room on his computer.”

“Yeah, he had a lot of work to catch up on. It looks like he’s better, though. He was doing okay when I went to see him on my birthday.” 

“That’s good to hear. What is it he does again?”

“He like… designs stuff for websites. I don’t really get how it works, but it pays better than JojaMart! Heh! If I understood it, maybe I’d be doing the same!”

“There’s nothing wrong with working at Joja, sweetheart. At least it gets you out of the house a little. What about Abigail?”

“She’s fine. She didn’t get hurt as bad as we did.”

“Your father mentioned that. She didn’t end up with the two of you, right? It sounds like Sebastian could have gotten away too! I knew you two were close, but I didn’t realize just how close you were…”

Sam actually paused at that, raising an eyebrow at his mother while he held a half-eaten bar inches from his mouth. “What do you mean? We’re best friends!”

“I just mean that it seems like he really cares about you. I just… hope you don’t rush into anything. Sebastian is a nice boy. I’m sure he’s a good friend, but…”

At that point, Sam put his breakfast down, giving his mother a look of disbelief. “I… I think you’ve got the wrong idea, mom! Me and Seb are just… you know… we’re friends!”

“Really? Maybe I just got the wrong idea. It’s just… you two have always spent so much time together, your dad said he went back for you in the mines, in all these years you’ve never asked Penny or Abby out, and the way Red found you in the…”

“That was to…”

“To keep warm. You’ve said that. It’s just that everything together…”

“I… I would have gone back for him too! Either of us would have gone back for Abby. It doesn’t mean… that. And dating Penny or Abby would feel kind of like dating a sister. Wouldn’t that be weird?”

“Would dating Sebastian feel like dating a brother?”

“I…” Sam shrugged, then lied through his teeth. He wasn’t very good at it, though, since he couldn’t seem to keep eye contact when he said, “I haven’t really thought about that. I guess it would be?”

Jodi smiled as she stood up, taking his plate when she realized he wasn’t going to eat anymore. “I’m sorry if I got the wrong idea, Sam. I’m just worried about you! There’s nothing wrong with being friends with Sebastian or Abigail. It’s just that, especially after what happened in the mines, I’m worried they’ll get you in more trouble.”

“I wanted to go too. I thought it…”

“Besides,” Jodi continued undeterred. “I know it’s normal for boys and girls your age to experiment a little bit.”

“Mom, I don’t really wanna…”

“But I don’t want you to regret anything later. It sounds like Maru is really taking after her dad with her science experiments! Why don’t you spend a little more time with her? I’m sure it would be fun to hang out with Sebastian’s little sister too!”

“Seb and Maru don’t really…”

“What about Haley next door? She’s a nice girl, isn’t she? I always imagined her ending up with Alex, but if he’s interested in someone else, maybe you could get to know her better? Isn’t Emily single too?”

Sam just went silent. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to be able to get a word in anyway.

“Really, though, I just think you should give Penny a chance. You said it’d be like dating your sister, but you two really don’t spend so much time together that you should be seeing her like that! She’s a teacher, and she’s so good with Vince and Marnie’s little niece! I’m sure you want to settle down and have a family some day, right?”

There was a moment before Sam answered where he wasn’t sure if his mom was just going to continue. When he realized she was actually waiting for a response, he scratched at the back of his head and said, “Uh… sure, I guess? I’m not sure I want that now, though. Me, Seb, and Abby still have the band to think about! I’m too young to have kids anyway, right?”

Jodi shrugged. “I wasn’t that much older than you when I had kids. You are right that you may not be ready for it, though. It’s just… The older you get, Sam, the harder it is to change your life. You need to start thinking about what you can do now to get the life you want later. It’s so hard to get into the music industry, sweetie. You need to have a backup plan. Sebastian’s a nice friend, but he isn’t really taking after his mother, and it doesn’t sound like he’d be good for starting a family if he doesn’t even get along with his step-dad. Then Abigail is nice, but she’s been a little… rebellious with her family too, hasn’t she?”

“Mom… I don’t think you get it. Seb and Abby both have a lot of stuff going on.”

“I know, sweetie. I don’t think your friends are bad kids, but I don’t think they’d be good… partners. You need someone who can help you go where you want in life.” 

Sam frowned, crossing his arms. “What I want is to get into music, mom! I think we can do it! Seb does too! He sent one of our tapes to a guy in Zuzu City to see if we can land a show out there!”

“That’s sweet, Sam, but it’s harder than you think it is. You were just a kid when we lived in the city, honey, but bands from small towns showed up and fizzled out all the time. It’s just… the chances are…”

“I know,” Sam interrupted, a bit louder than he meant to. He cleared his throat and slouched in his chair a bit. “I know, mom. I believe in the band, though. Seb does too. We can do this. All three of us. Maybe I can meet someone in Zuzu or on tour!”

Jodi let out a sigh and shook her head. “Sam, I want you to really think about this. I know it’s your dream, but sometimes…” She frowned, looking down. “…sometimes things don’t work out. You need to be realistic and not reckless with your life. Sebastian and Abby almost got you killed, Sam. They don’t get along with their own families…”

“It’s not their fault! I wanted to go, and you know what happened with Pierre in the…”

She ignored him. “It’s fine if you want to keep being their friends! I know Caroline and Robin try their best. Maybe one of these days Abby and Sebastian will appreciate that a little more. For right now, why don’t you just try to keep it to band practice and to your little Friday get-togethers, okay? You know, Marnie had a change in her schedule, so Penny is going to be giving Vince and Jas lessons separately for a little while. I’m sure it would make Vince so happy to have his big brother around a little more often, and maybe you’ll change your mind about Penny.”

Sam frowned. This seemed… unfair, honestly. He loved his mom, but she pretty obviously had no idea what she was talking about when it came to Abigail and Sebastian. How was he gonna explain that he wasn’t gonna hang out with them as much? They were both kind of busy lately, so maybe he wouldn’t have to, but it was still pretty terrible!

“You don’t have to end up wanting to date her, Sam. She’s just such a nice girl. She was so worried about you when she heard you were in the clinic! You two have been friends for a while, even if you don’t spend as much time with her as you do with Sebastian and Abigail. Don’t you think it would be nice to give her a chance? I think she’s interested in you, at least! Besides, if you’re not dating anyway, what do you have to lose?”

“Um… Really? I’m pretty sure you’re getting the wrong idea about her too, mom. I don’t think she’s into me, but I guess I can hang out with her more.”

Jodi gave him a wide smile and stood up, going to put away the remaining maple bars. “Thank you, Sam. I really think this will be good for you! Now, go put on your shoes so we can get going, okay? Maybe a little prayer to Yoba will help make sure things work out for you two!”

Even as his mother let out an excited little laugh, Sam felt a weird feeling in his belly, like a stone had just dropped into his stomach. He wasn’t entirely sure why that was. Of course, he had nothing against Penny, and his mom wasn’t exactly forcing him to date her. Still, the way that Jodi talked about Sebastian (and Abby, though to a lesser degree), made him feel… kind of sick. Had she thought about him that way this whole time? Had the little adventure into the mines ruined her opinion of Sam’s friends? This was all just… too much. Quietly, he went to put on his sneakers, though he somehow doubted that Yoba was going to be any help with this problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's another chapter! I considered making it two separate ones, but I hope you're all alright with this! Stay safe!


	16. Summer 24, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam hangs out with Sebastian ahead of schedule.

Things had been a bit awkward over the next few days. Sam honestly did like Penny! She was smart, she was nice, and she got along with Vincent! They had a couple things in common, not that they got to talk about them that much. After all, she was still there to teach Vincent more than to hang around with Sam. Still… Sam just felt uncomfortable around her. Now that Jodi had brought the idea up, he couldn’t help but feel like he was under pressure to date this girl that… while he definitely thought he could be friends with, he just wasn’t that attracted to.

In a way, it was a relief when he had to go to JojaMart on Wednesday. At least it got him out of the house. He just put on his headphones and zoned out through the first half of the shift, letting his confusing feelings and his worries melt away to the sounds of some of the best bands from Zuzu City. When it was time for lunch, he and Shane ducked into the back room, where they sat at a cheap, rickety card table which Morris had never been able to sell and that had become the unofficial lunch table for the whole staff.

As they sat there, Sam began to pull out some leftover casserole in a plastic container from his bag, while Shane pulled out a plain white box from his own. When the older man opened it up, Sam saw a number of fresh-looking pepper poppers that were significantly bigger than the ones they sold in the freezer aisle. Naturally, the blonde raised an eyebrow at the sight.

“Those look pretty good,” he said.

Shane nodded. “Yeah. Red stopped by early this morning to talk to my aunt. He brought these.”

“Huh…” Sam said, his gaze not leaving the breaded, cheese-stuffed peppers. 

The other man sighed. “You want one?”

Sam nodded his head eagerly, then took the offered treat, popping it into his mouth. He chewed on it, savoring the cheesy flavor and then…

…

…well, then he rushed to the nearby Glorpee machine, putting his head directly under the spigot as he pulled the lever, unleashing the cool, refreshing, and (allegedly) unsafe beverage into his open mouth! 

Shane laughed. “Wow! Can’t handle the heat, huh?”

Sam walked away from the machine, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and shrugging. “I thought they’d be more like the ones we sell here.”

With a roll of his eyes, Shane shook his head and popped one into his own mouth, speaking as he chewed on the thing. “The garbage we sell here is made with the cheapest ingredients money can buy. Of course they aren’t hot.”

“I guess that’s true, but at least they’re made of real peppers. Did you ever try the JojaBeri cereal? I think the box says, ‘Made with REAL JojaBlue Beris!’”

“Eugh. No, but Marnie bought it for Jas once. She ended up feeling sick and her tongue turned blue.” 

“Yeah… the same happened to Vince. I can’t believe we’ve still got that crap on the shelves.”

“Really? So you haven’t seen the rest of the shit we sell? This place is a dump. If I could afford real beer, I don’t think I’d shop here… How is your brother anyway? Jas has been kind of down about not hanging out.”

“He’s alright. He likes Penny, but he seems a little less interested in class now that Jas isn’t around. Do you think Marnie’s schedule’s gonna go back to normal soon?”

At this, Shane raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? Jodi’s the one who wanted them to take classes separately for a while.”

“Huh? But… my mom said Marnie had some kind of change?”

Shane rolled his eyes again. “We live on a farm, Sam. The schedule’s the same every day. The chickens don’t just decide they want to be fed at a different time or something.”

Sam didn’t immediately respond, his mind a bit busy trying to piece this all together. All he managed to come up with to say was “I guess, but doesn’t Red explore the mines and…”

He didn’t get to finish, as Shane interrupted him with “Red’s got farmhands, no kids, and enough cash to automate half the farm, apparently. Marnie automates some of the work, sure, but it’s a full-time job for her. Now that Red’s farm’s breeding its own animals, that’s one less source of income, so I don’t think she’s going to be hiring anyone any time soon.”

“Oh. So… I guess that’s why you work here?”

“Yeah. That’s why.” Shane stood up, a sour look on his face as he went to put away what remained of his lunch. “Speaking of, I should get back to it. Not all of us get to live rent-free.”

The two didn’t talk that much for the rest of the day. Not that Sam really minded. When Shane got into a bad mood, he was really unpleasant to be around. Besides, he was still trying to figure out what was up with his mom. She didn’t want him around Sebastian and Abigail as much, she wanted him to hang out with Penny instead, and now he finds out she had apparently made an excuse for Penny to come over to the house more often. It was… pretty weird. Had she only said to not hang out with Sebastian, he might have been worried she was homophobic. That would hurt, yeah, but it wouldn’t be quite so confusing. The fact that she also had concerned about Abby, however… that was a bit more confusing.

When work got out, he began to walk home, his bag slung over his shoulder and his headphones still covering his ears. He imagined that he’d get back, practice his guitar for a bit, maybe text his friends, have dinner with his family, then go to bed. The next day he could practice skateboarding a little bit. He had heard his mom comment on how she had wanted to try a new kind of casserole that used sandfish instead of the usual bass. Considering that he vaguely remembered Penny mentioning she liked that kind of fish once, he suspected she was going to be joining them after Vincent’s next tutoring session. Of course… that was supposed to be on Friday. His mom did say that she was okay with him still hanging out with his friends on that day, but… she had also said Marnie had been the one to ask for the schedule change. Was she planning on having him stick around Friday night? No… He didn’t want to be that suspicious of his own mother. Besides, sandfish couldn’t be so easy to get. Where was she even going to buy it? JojaMart didn’t carry it, and, as far as he knew, neither did Pierre or Willy. Still, this whole situation didn’t feel great.

As Sam finished crossing the stone bridge over the river that separated the two halves of Pelican Town, he glanced off towards the mountain where Sebastian and his family lived. Things had been a bit… weird, hadn’t they? Sebastian seemed pretty worried about the kiss and about being so personal on Sam’s birthday… honestly, if Sam stopped hanging out with him so much, it would probably make things even worse. Sebastian still had Abby, of course, but she wasn’t quite as good at calming their friend when he got too into his own head as Sam happened to be.

The young man frowned at the thought. Hanging out with Sebastian less was… actually pretty unappealing. Not just because Sebastian could take it poorly, though that was definitely a factor. No, Sam just wanted to be around his best friend. Things had been weird, it was true. Even so, they’d been friends for a long time, and, as much as Sam liked Penny, he wasn’t really willing to let her move in on Sebastian’s place in his life. Whatever that place was.

Letting out a sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Starting to walk away from town and towards the mountain, he listened to the phone ring a few times, then go to voicemail. 

“Hey dad,” he said. “Can you tell mom I’ll be home tomorrow? Some stuff came up with Sebastian. We’re both alright though. Talk to you soon.” 

With that, he hung up and continued on his way towards his best friend’s house.

Now, as for Sebastian himself, he had been in his room most of the day, as was normal. Finally caught up on his work, he had a little more time to spend on personal matters. Normally, that would mean preparing for the next game of Solarian Chronicles or reading up on some of his favorite fantasy franchises. Today, however, it instead meant trying to figure out what he was going to tell Sam on Friday. The thought had really been weighing on him, after all. Specifically, he had been quietly practicing what he would say, looking up decidedly unhelpful tips on the internet, trying to distract himself with something else, failing, and then repeating the cycle. Eventually, he had freaked out a bit and printed out various apartment application forms for places in Zuzu City for when this inevitably destroyed his friendships and had him run out of town. Fortunately, a bit of deep breathing later, he managed to calm back down and just bury his face in the pillows on his bed as he tried to either fall asleep or at least feel better. Sure, he didn’t have a perfect handle on this yet, but he had all of the next day and most of Friday to solve this problem. Sam was working today anyway, so he didn’t imagine they would talk all that much until then.

Naturally, it was then that he heard the door to his room creak open just a bit, letting him clearly hear an argument that had been going on upstairs.

“I’m telling you,” he heard Demetrius say, “the amount of energy you’d need to keep that much stone in a molten state while inside an open pit even during the harshest parts of winter is astronomically high! It would consume far more in a single day than all of Pelican Town does in a year!” 

“Look, I know it’s difficult, but what if we use an alternate energy source? I don’t really understand it, but they’ve got plenty of iridium, prismatic shards, and even some lightning rods… Hold on,” his mother responded, only to look through the crack she had just made in Sebastian’s door and smile at her son. “Sebby, Sam’s here to see you.”

Well shit. Sebastian pulled himself out of bed and answered, “I’ll be right there.”

After making sure he looked alright, he met with a somewhat uncomfortable looking Sam out in the shop area of the house, Robin and Demetrius at least having the courtesy to continue their argument in the lab with the door shut, though Sebastian could still hear them arguing about the relative merits of various power sources.

“Hey,” he said as he walked up to the blonde, trying to keep a calm demeanor.

“Hey,” Sam responded. “Uh… did I show up at a bad time?”

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder at the lab door, then shook his head. “No. Actually, it’s not a bad time to go out for a walk. Mind coming with me?”

“Sure. Wanna go out by the farm again?”

It wasn’t exactly a bad idea, but Sebastian wasn’t really looking forward to being in the exact same circumstances as when they had their little talk on Sam’s birthday. “No. Let’s go to the train tracks.”

So, the two began walking further up the mountain, towards the seldom-used bathhouse and the nearly-abandoned train platform.

“So,” Sebastian began after about a minute of walking in silence. “I thought you were working today? Everything alright?”

“Yeah… I think so. Uh… sorry I didn’t text you. It was kind of a last minute decision to hang out.”

This caused Sebastian to arch a brow. Sam was… not always the best at thinking things through or planning ahead, but coming right up to his place after work without so much as a text was a rarity, even for him. 

“You think everything’s alright?” he asked the blonde.

“Things got a little weird at home a couple nights ago. Dad wanted to talk about the stuff in the mines. That didn’t go so bad, but then mom was being kind of weird about me hanging out with you and Abby.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah. Weird. She said she wanted me to try hanging out with Penny more and… like… I don’t know, something about a good partner to get what I want from life.”

“A good partner, huh? You… did always go with Penny to the Flower Dance.”

Sam shrugged at this, which caused Sebastian more relief than he had been expecting. “Yeah. We’ve been friends for a long time, and she tutors Vince. You always danced with Abby, and I don’t hang out with the other girls in town much.”

“Maybe you should have danced with Maru. It would have been better than watching her dance with her boss.”

This managed to get a laugh out of Sam, who nodded his head. “Yeah. Weird how Harvey always asks her. Isn’t he kind of old?”

“I think so. Maybe he can dance with Haley now that Alex is taken.”

“Heh… yeah. But… uh…” Sam shifted a bit, seemingly unsure how to proceed. 

Getting the impression his friend was trying to steer the conversation back towards what was going on, Sebastian asked, “So, what happened with your mom?”

“Oh… um… she had Penny come over to the house a couple times to tutor my brother. She said Marnie had to make some kind of change with Jas, so it was just gonna be them. She said I should hang out with them, so I did. It was kind of alright. Vincent seemed happy about it. Then… today, I talked to Shane…”

“Wow. He talks? I thought he only knew how to brood in the corner of the saloon.”

“He’s not that bad at work. He’s definitely really moody, but he saves the crappy attitude for Joja mostly.”

“I’ll take your word for it. Well, what did he say?”

It was here that Sam stopped walking, frowning as explained, “Marnie didn’t make the change. My mom asked for it.”

Now Sebastian was frowning as well. “Oh. Sounds like she really wanted you to hang out more with Penny.”

“Yeah. She did. So, I decided I just wanted to hang out with you today instead. Mom can be weird about it or get upset later. I…” He didn’t finish that thought. Instead, he shrugged and said, “Whatever. I’m not gonna let this stuff get me down all night. Uh… but I did say I wasn’t gonna be back until tomorrow.”

Sebastian nodded. “You know you can always stay. I don’t have that much work to do anyway. Not sure we can do Solarian Chronicles this time, though. I fell a little behind on writing the next adventure.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got plenty of other stuff we can do.”

Another period of silence fell as they walked a bit further, though this one felt significantly more comfortable. That was, until Sebastian began to remember that he had to talk to Sam. Technically, he didn’t have to do it until Friday. Actually, if he didn’t want to, he didn’t really have to do it at all. He doubted that Abby would tell Sam if he didn’t. Still, wouldn’t it be kind of strange if they hung out all night Wednesday, parted ways Thursday, then Sebastian brought up this issue on Friday? Would it retroactively sour them hanging out? Honestly, it would probably make it that much worse for them to have a great night, only for things to go poorly on Friday. Sebastian wasn’t sure he had the strength to handle his and Sam’s friendship being destroyed right after having a fun, unexpected night together. At the same time, it seemed like Sam really did have a right to know how he felt…

It was while he was rather stuck in his own head that he heard Sam ask, “Sebastian?”

That snapped him out of it long enough to realize they were standing near the bathhouse, the train tracks not that far ahead of them.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

“Yeah! I was asking if you wanna take a dip in the water!”

“In the water? Sam, I don’t have my swimsuit. We’d have to go back. I don’t think we have a spare that’ll fit you either.”

“Don’t you keep one in your locker?”

“No. I emptied that thing out ages ago. It’s not like we come here that often.”

Sam was, however, undeterred. He wanted to have fun and, despite his protests, he knew Sebastian enjoyed the water as well. They’d gone swimming together a number of times as kids, after all. “Well… I don’t need my swimsuit. If you change your mind, I’ll just swim in by underwear or something! You can do the same, right? No one else’s gonna be there and swimsuits are basically just boxers.”

“…no. There’s no way we’re doing that, Sam.”

Sam shrugged and the two continued on. Sebastian could feel himself start to get… wrapped up in thoughts again as they arrived at the tracks, though. The idea of taking a dip in the water was appealing, especially with Sam, but… it almost seemed taunting, didn’t it? The image of them stripping down in front of Sebastian without being in a life threatening situation and… well… Things would almost certainly not play out the way he was imagining. No, it was far too much to ask. The best he could hope for was for them to keep being friends even after they had their talk. Whenever that was going to be. It was actually becoming more agonizing by the moment to put it off. He couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t going to end up being like pulling off a bandage. Stalling for time wasn’t making it easier and it was unlikely to positively effect the outcome.

Before he could stop himself, he found himself turning to Sam and saying, “Look, I need to talk to you about something.”

Sam looked a bit surprised at this, then tilted his head slightly to the side. “Alright? What’s going on? You look kinda red, man.”

“I… it’s about…” He struggled with that for a moment, only to come up with “…the bathhouse. About why I don’t wanna go swimming.” Well, that was a terrible start.

“Huh? Hey, I get it. I know you can be kind of shy! Remember last year when Blues walked in on your during your check up with Harvey and…”

“No, I… well, I do remember that, yeah. What I mean is, that’s not why I don’t wanna go to the bathhouse.”

“Oh. Well… what’s going on?”

Sebastian walked ahead a bit, climbing up on to the train platform and taking a seat on the bench. Sam was close behind, but he didn’t sit down. Instead, he just stood in front of Sebastian with a concerned look on his face.

After taking in a deep breath, Sebastian started speaking. “I… kissed you.”

“Uh… yeah. I was there, remember?” Sam laughed. “Is that what’s wrong? Come on… I already said it was fine, right? I know you didn’t…”

“No, Sam, that’s the thing. I did.”

“Huh?”

Another deep breath. “I did mean to kiss you. It wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t heat-of-the-moment confusion. I thought we were going to die, and I wanted that to be the last thing I did. I… like guys, Sam. I like… you. I have for a while.” 

Sam’s eyes widened. He draw back, as if in shock. His jaw started to go a bit slack. After a few seconds, he managed to say, “Wait, are you serious?”

Standing up from the bench, Sebastian started to walk away, keeping his back to Sam as he felt tears start to well up in his eyes. “Yeah. I’m serious, Sam. Look, I get it. I know people here think it’s weird. I understand if we’re not going to hang out after this. It’s just… I couldn’t…” Couldn’t what, exactly? Keep his stupid thoughts to himself? Live with this and keep one of the only friendships he had? Well, it was too late now.

At least, that was what he thought until Sam grabbed his hand, keeping him from leaving. When he turned around, he saw that blonde with what had to be the widest, yet the most tender smile he’d ever seen. 

“Sebastian… that’s… that’s great! Man, I thought I was… I didn’t think you felt the same way!”

“Same way?” Sebastian repeated back, still somewhat shocked by Sam’s own words. “There’s no way you…”

However that sentence was going to end, it was forgotten when Sebastian felt Sam’s lips against his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience and continued support! I wish I could promise to get the next one out quicker, but I don't see classes slowing down that much until (at best) next semester. Stay safe!


End file.
